New Storm
by Wedjatqi
Summary: Post S5, Atlantis is on Earth. Something dangerous is discovered in Atlantis, the consequences of which will forever change the team's lives. JT. Written for the Beya Secret Elf challenge. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

This fic is complete (and will all be posted now) and was written for the Beya John and Teyla Secret Elf Christmas Challenge 2009 - In total it is just over 42,000 words , which is why some of you have noticed that I have not been posting much lately - this is why!

The story is set Post-S5, Atlantis still on Earth.

--------

**Chapter 1**

The air was bright yet strangely still across the balcony. Teyla lifted her chin into the faint breeze, but it barely grazed over her skin. Rodney had once explained to her how the air circulated within and around the city when the shield or cloak was in place, but she could no longer remember the details. She had asked in that first year when the shield had become operational again and at the time her only interest had been in how the air was kept fresh over the piers when the shield stood, as walking along the long metal constructs had not been appealing if the air supply were to abruptly cut off. Rodney had assured her that air circulated outside the city's buildings and she had been happy with that, but had then politely nodded through the rest of his longwinded explanation. Now, years later she could not recall any of his description and she smiled as she compared both her and Rodney now to how they had been then. Now she knew how to carefully phrase her questions to her friend and she knew if she told him that she had heard enough that he would no longer take offense. So, perhaps she would ask him again about the air around and beyond the balcony, hidden within the cloak that protected the great city from those on the nearby mainland.

She missed the natural breeze from the ocean though and she looked out over the balcony railing towards the water that stretched the short distance between the city and the nearby land. It was a beautiful view and she had spent much time admiring it, as did all the others sat along the massive balcony. It appeared that almost everyone now carried their meals out to the balconies to stare out at the Earth mainland whilst they ate. She turned to look down the length of the balcony. The tables were packed in as closely as possible, and where no further tables could be added there were a line of chairs against the back wall. She studied the faces of those sat on those chairs, all facing out past the full tables to the view beyond. Everyone's faces were bright and happy, and though it pleased her no end to see joy in others' expression, she felt a pang of regret, for there were fewer faces she recognised as the weeks passed.

When Atlantis had returned to Earth, and it had became clear that she would not be returning to Pegasus any time soon, there had been a large rush of people requesting time to visit their homelands and families. Now it was three months after Atlantis' arrival and some of those faces had yet to return. The city had also been flooded with scientists, and the majority of the faces around her were of those busy studying as much of the city as was possible. Technically Rodney and his staff were still in charge of all these new faces, but she knew from Rodney that there was almost too much interest in the city. Apparently the IOA was inundated with requests from various countries and militaries to be able to send their own experts. In the end large groups of the most highly qualified were gathered into small teams and it was those that now worked in the city. Almost every week many of the faces would change as some research was completed and another group would arrive in their pace. It was a dizzying constant state of change and Teyla found that it unnerved her considerably.

She tracked her gaze across the rest of the balcony, wondering where Rodney might be today, only for her to hear the very recognisable chuckle of John from the other end of the balcony. She leant to one side, seeking him out down the length of the balcony.

For the first month or so on Earth the team, Carson, Jennifer and Amelia, had gathered to share meals as always, but lately as the city grew busier their duties were changing and it was rare for them all to be together to eat. John was still military commander of the city, though with the Gate disabled to allow Earth's Gate to take precedence, there was far less for them to do. The teams had been reassigned to city security and watching over the research teams. It meant that Teyla had far less to do with her time than before, but John and the others had other aspects to their positions that kept them busy.

John especially seemed to have much to do overseeing visiting military personnel and dignitaries. It appeared that those involved in Atlantis' care from Earth over the years now wished to visit the city for themselves. As Teyla craned her neck further around one man's shoulder she finally spotted the familiar line of John's shoulders. His back was to her and he was sat with a military representative who had been visiting the city regularly for the past couple of weeks. A beautiful blonde woman who clearly enjoyed John's company, and from the tone of his second chuckle Teyla suspected he shared the interest. A faint new ache centred in her chest at the thought, but she quickly turned her thoughts away from straying into those feelings. She sat back into her chair and looked to those at her own table.

Torren sat in his high chair, carefully and methodically eating small pieces of fruit. He looked up at her with his dark eyes and a huge grin spread across his face at her attention. She smiled in return and reached for a napkin to wipe some of the fruit juice from his mouth and chin, however before she could Kanaan's hand slid into view with a fresh cloth and wiped their son's mouth. Torren grinned wider as he turned to look up at his father. Teyla lowered her raised hand and settled back in her seat – it appeared there was little for her to do anywhere at the moment.

Her attention shifted up from Torren to Kanaan who was smiling down at his son. All of Kanaan's time and attention lately had been almost solely focused on Torren, and she had wondered whether the intensity of that care indicated that he too missed their people. Though Kanaan admitted that he missed their people and understood why they remained on Earth for now, Teyla suspected his engrossment in Torren was partly due to his grief for Pegasus. She was surprised how much she missed her home galaxy and her people, although there had been two other Athosians in the city, under the care of Jennifer in the Infirmary, when the city had been forced to leave Pegasus. She and Kanaan spent a lot of time with them and it helped them all to remain close to their Athosian roots. Only two nights ago they had gathered to perform the ritual of renewal, hoping that their timing would be the same as back in Pegasus where their people would have been similarly performing the ritual. Rodney had taken the time to check the timing for her through some complicated maths and she had been very grateful to her friend for his attention to something so small when he had so much to do in the city.

Kanaan set the cloth aside as he looked away at the spectacular view. Teyla studied him as surreptitiously as possible. She was surprised at how relaxed he remained being possibly permanently separated from his home galaxy. He sensed her attention.

"What is it, Teyla?" He asked politely and carefully - as he did with everything. She had no idea why it bothered her of late, but it did. She wondered if it was the gentle echo of John's laughter through the other voices that bothered her – Kanaan rarely laughed.

"It is nothing," she replied, trying to keep her own expression as schooled and polite as his appeared to be.

Kanaan reached across the small table towards her, his hand settling near her empty plate, and she wondered if was an attempt to encourage her to hold his hand. She was surprised that she felt the exact opposite and tightened her hands together in her lap. Kanaan did not appear to notice. "Are you alright?" He asked kindly, his eyes intent on her face.

"I am fine," she replied.

Kanaan sat back again, his hand retreating across the table's metal surface, but his eyes remained on her. "You did not appear to sleep well last night," he commented.

Flickers of memory played in her mind and she swallowed at the strange mixture of emotions they brought forth. Most of the images from her dream…her nightmare…were half forgotten and the order confused, but she recalled that Kanaan had been in them.

"I had an uncomfortable dream," she told him.

"Were you dreaming of home again?" He asked.

She nodded. Yes, that sounded better than the images she could still recall. The darkness, the cold, the empty hands reaching for her.

"You have not been sleeping well for some time," Kanaan remarked.

"I know," she replied. It was true. Over the past months, perhaps even before then, she had been having nightmares. The occasional nightmare over the last year was not that uncommon, usually filled with frightened versions of when Michael had taken her, forcing her to give birth to Torren on a Wraith ship and this time rescue had never arrived. Then after Michael's death they had begun to visit her more regularly… She wondered if it was due to some internal conflict over her choice to end Michael's life as she had. She did not regret her actions, for she had done what had been needed in order to protect her son, her friends and all the others Michael's existence had threatened. Yet, perhaps on a deeper level it still bothered her?

"Perhaps you should speak to Doctor Keller?" Kanaan suggested helpfully. "Now that you no longer feed Torren you could take something to help you…"

She shook her head as politely as she could. "I will be fine, it is probably just being away from our people."

Kanaan didn't appear convinced. "Or perhaps speak to Doctor Beckett instead," he suggested.

Teyla shook her head again and smiled to reassure him. "I will be fine."

Kanaan studied her for a moment longer and she knew there were other questions behind his eyes. He kept busy most days, usually walking Torren around the city meeting all the new scientists and in talking with researchers interested in Athosian and Pegasus culture. One of the other male Athosians in the city, Tolim, and Kanaan spent much time together and the two of them could often be found on one of these balconies staring out at the lands of Earth.

People began to rise up from the tables along the balcony, signalling that a shift change was due, and she saw John moving through the crowd towards her. He smiled and she smiled back, for the first time today feeling brighter. She had missed spending as much time with her friends.

"Hey," John greeted her, and perhaps Kanaan as well, it was always difficult to tell. John reached their table and stood directly behind Torren's high chair leaning over it so the boy had to tilt his head right back and grinned up at John. "Hello, Trouble," John greeted Torren as he grinned back down at the boy. "The food's supposed to go in your mouth, you know," he said as he ruffled Torren's dark hair. Torren giggled in response and Teyla found her first proper smile of the day at hearing the unadulterated happy sound.

"Do you have a busy day?" Teyla asked John as she watched Torren reach into his bowl and hold up a piece of apple for John above him.

"This for me?" John asked her son and Teyla watched Torren turn his eyes to the fruit piece again and then nodded emphatically that it was for John. "Thank you, Torren," John replied, with a soft kind voice as he took the offered fruit.

"When isn't it busy around here?" He answered her question. "You guys going to join us on the trip this weekend?" He asked, his eyes drifting to include Kanaan briefly.

"Is this the trip to the city on the mainland?" Kanaan asked as he reached forward with the cloth and wiped Torren's mouth again.

"Sure, some shopping in the afternoon, then there's a fair in the evening," John replied his attention shifting to Teyla. "There should be a Ferris Wheel." He lifted his eyebrows, his expression meant to tempt her to join them. She smiled up at his comment and the memory it provoked.

"Well, you have always promised to show me one," she replied. "We would love to come along."

John looked back down to Torren. "And kids are invited of course," he added as Torren looked back up at him with another baby giggle.

"Does that mean we are taking Rodney as well?" Teyla asked John. He looked up at her from Torren with a surprised sparkle in his eyes at her joke.

"Yes, though we're gonna have to watch how much candy he eats," he replied with a smile. "He'll never sleep otherwise," he added. She found herself chuckling at the weak joke and she realised how deeply she was missing John's, and her other friends', regular company. Kanaan shifted in his seat, leaning slightly closer to Torren.

The radio in Teyla's ear clicked as the line opened and she saw John tilt his head a fraction as he heard the same.

"Colonel Sheppard, this is Major Lorne," the familiar voice called over the radio link.

John reached up to his ear and activated his end of the conversation. "Sheppard here," he replied, his tone professional.

"Colonel, could you meet me in Doctor Beckett's lab please?" Lorne asked.

Teyla frowned up at John, recognising the undercurrent to the Major's tone.

"I'll be right there," John replied before he deactivated the radio link and looked back down to her. "I'll see you guys later then," he offered and he leant right over Torren again, to get the boy's attention. "See you later, T.J." John ruffled Torren's hair once more before he headed away.

Teyla watched him leave, disappearing into the rest of those crowding out of the balcony to their shifts. She was not on shift till later this morning, but the temptation was to follow John to help out was very strong. Her former low mood began to return for no clear reason, other than the subtle sense of something being wrong in Major Lorne's tone. Out the corner of her eye she saw Kanaan gently brushing Torren's hair back into place.

------

The door to Carson's lab was open as John approached and as he turned into the doorway he found two teams inside. Carson's lab was tucked away down near the base of the main tower, had three rooms and two technicians to help him with his research, and was usually a quiet and avoided place. Maybe that had something to do with the Wraith technology wired into the main console in the middle of the room.

"What's up?" John asked as he marched past two marines to where Lorne stood beside Carson.

"Sir, we think there may have been a security breech," Lorne informed him.

That brought John up short. "What? Where?"

"Here, Sir," Lorne replied as he inclined his head towards the confusing display of the Ancient console.

"Here?" John repeated as he pointed to the console and turned to Carson.

Carson looked rather sheepish. "Thing is Colonel, it may not be the first time. I thought it was simply one of the technicians checking on some results out of hours, or perhaps I simply…"

"Wait, start from the beginning," John ordered his friend gently.

Carson took a breath. "Last month I couldn't sleep one night and came back to the lab to complete some tests and found my laptop was on. I thought I had just forgotten to switch it off, you know how it can be. But, then last week I came back from lunch early and it looked like someone had been looking through some data on this console, but again I thought nothing of it. I assumed one of my team had been scrolling through the work."

"But not today?" John asked.

"No, they are both out of the city today. Mark only chose to leave first thing this morning when he got a party invite from his family. I came into the lab early from lunch and clearly someone has been looking through my research."

"What research?" John asked, a worrying feeling gathering in his stomach.

Carson looked down at the two Wraith devices beside the console, which had been acquired from two of Michael's bases. Nothing had been downloaded directly from the Wraith tech, just in case, and the Ancient console monitored the devices constantly through one way cables. Carson was slowly making his way through every inch of Michael's database stored on the devices, entering it directly into the city's computer by hand, thereby never allowing the Wraith tech assess to the computers.

"Michael's research, both the Ancient console and Michael's databases seem to have been accessed directly," Carson replied.

John frowned down at the Wraith tech suspiciously. "I thought only you and your technicians knew how to access the data in those things?"

"Just us three, as well as Rodney and Zelenka."

"I've already checked with them and they haven't touched anything in here for months," Lorne reported.

"Who has access to this lab?" John asked.

"Anyone in the city, but since only we can access Michael's database and everything on the computers is password protected…" Carson replied. John tried not to growl at the drop in security, but before it had never been necessary to stop their own people entering a room in Atlantis other than in a crisis.

"I want a guard watching this lab at all times from now," John ordered Lorne, who nodded. "What exactly has this person been looking at?" He asked Carson.

The doctor shrugged. "I can only tell you what they looked at today,"

"Which was?"

"All my research from last month to the present."

"Someone keeping tracks on what you're up to?" John wondered out loud.

"I have no way to know how often this person has been looking into my research," Carson added worriedly.

"Can't we do a search for any time the system has been accessed by someone other than you and your two technicians?" Lorne asked.

"If anyone else tried to access this then it should have thrown up a warning and shut down the connection completely as a safeguard," Carson replied. "Rodney created the programme himself." That made it highly unlikely that the security system just had a glitch.

"Could someone have gotten round the safeguards?" Lorne asked.

"How well do you know your technicians?" John asked.

Carson looked struck for an answer for a minute. "I trust them. Mark has been in the city since day one and Amanda, she transferred from the SGC. Besides they would have no need to look at the research out of hours, they can look at anything they need to when they are working in here."

John nodded – it was unlikely that the technicians had given the passwords to anyone else, since they had such high access already, but he couldn't completely rule it out. "When are they due back in the city?" He asked Lorne.

"I'll find out," Lorne replied as he turned away to talk into his radio.

"What kind of information could this person have gathered, Carson?" John asked worried. "How dangerous?"

Carson frowned. "They had access to all my data on the Hoffan plague, Michael's Hybrids and everything else I've been researching before that. And if they were able to access the Wraith devices then anything in them. All of Michael's research."

John frowned. "You said you first noticed it a month or so ago?"

"Yes."

"So, presumably it's someone new in the city, from Earth," John muttered.

Lorne returned. "The technicians are both due back tomorrow. Maybe whoever has been looking at your work, doc, is someone looking for a way to kill Wraith?"

"Espionage," John muttered distastefully. It would be typical now he thought about it, for some government or highly placed someone, to want to know for themselves everything Atlantis knew. Looking for something they could use, probably to make money at the same time.

"I'll tell Woolsey, but for now we need to keep this quiet," John said. "Maybe we can catch this person in the act next time," John wondered as the plan formed in his mind. "But, we're going to have to do a sweep of the city, make sure nothing else has been tampered with."

"That could be difficult to keep quiet," Lorne commented.

"We'll say it's a system overhaul. Rodney will come up with some excuse," John replied. "I'll go talk to him now. Carson, stick to your routine as best you can and we'll see about getting some cameras fixed up in here, hidden away."

Carson looked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry, I should have reported this when I first suspected something."

John lifted his hand to Carson's shoulder to reassure him. "It's not your fault, Carson. You reported when you knew. It'll probably turn out to be someone trying to steal secrets. At least when the Wraith attacked they were up front about it," he muttered as he turned away to leave, Lorne falling into step beside him.

"We need to find out who this is, and how they got access to the city and that console," John pointed out, the first touches of anger building. Someone had been poking around where they didn't belong and John wasn't happy about it.

"It's likely to be someone in one of the research groups," Lorne pointed out. John nodded at that – it was the most likely answer, but something about it felt off to John. Not the least of which was that he was bound to take some flack for this – he should have had more security around Carson's lab, but then the entire city was held in the highest level of security. How did this person get into the city, that was what bothered him.

Someone in the city was pretending to be someone they weren't and John was going to find them.

-------

John leant forward over Rodney's shoulder as he studied the city wide display.

"This will track anyone moving into that section," Rodney stated with clear pride as he tapped a last command into the keyboard and sat back. John pulled back in time to save getting head butted by Rodney. John frowned at the display. "I'll work," Rodney protested.

"That's if they try again," John muttered.

Rodney turned in his seat. "It was your idea," he protested gesturing to his tracking system.

"I know that, Rodney."

"We're checking all the other lab computers to see if anyone's been hacking into other systems, and Zelenka's trying to find out what access code was used in Carson's lab."

John stood back and crossed his arms over his chest. "I think maybe a full city sweep would be a good idea, check for anything out of place."

"Why?" Rodney protested. "We scan the city twice a day anyway."

"Just humour me," John pushed.

Rodney turned back to his screen. "These are the scans from first thing this morning," he reported and he pressed a few buttons and the screen bleeped. "See, everything's normal. Same old, same old."

John frowned at the nondescript lists of data that meant absolutely nothing to him, but he trusted Rodney, and the helpful little bleep from the computer that nothing was out of place. Yet, his gut didn't like it. Something wasn't quite right here.

Someone shifted closer to his right and her perfume, or was it lingering incense caught in her clothing, told him it was Teyla. "What is it John?" She asked.

"Who would want to know about Michael's research?" He asked as he turned towards her. She looked thoughtful and Ronon shrugged beside her.

Rodney spun round on his chair. "Are you kidding me? Probably any organisation on Earth that are looking for a foot in against the Wraith!"

John glanced down at him. "You're forgetting that the majority of Earth have no idea that the Wraith exist, let alone this city. Those who know about Atlantis and the Wraith would have access to the intel on them and Carson's reports. Why go to all this trouble at sneaking into Carson's lab?"

"Maybe they want to see the research for themselves?" Rodney replied.

"How 'bout Todd?" Ronon asked.

John glanced at him. "I've already checked, he hasn't moved from his cell for weeks. Besides we've got cameras on him all the time. Scan the city again, Rodney," John ordered. "Compare everything going back to before we got to Earth." Rodney opened his mouth to complain, but closed it with a small huff and turned back to the screen to begin tapping away.

Across the control room John spied Zelenka pushing his way through to them. As the small Czech man pushed his glasses further up his nose John could tell that he had found something. "What you find?"

Zelenka had clearly walked as fast as he could to get here, as John hadn't wanted any of this discussed over the radio just yet. Who knew how far this infiltration went.

"Yes, Colonel. It appears that whoever it was used Doctor Beckett's own code to access the console and laptop, as well as Michael's devices."

"What?" Rodney asked abruptly.

"What they look at in the Wraith databases?" John asked over Rodney.

"I can't be sure as the Wraith tech doesn't log what a user looks at, all I can see is that they logged into it. They would have had access to the entire database."

"A database that's in Wraith," John pointed out and Zelenka nodded.

"Could you tell if they downloaded anything?" John asked worried. They had been careful never to download anything from Michael's tech, as Rodney had found a wealth of hidden code in the Wraith text – who knew what could be activated in the information once it taken from Michael's computer?

"No, I couldn't find any evidence that anything was copied or removed from Michael's database. Also…" The scientist paused.

"What Radek?" John pushed.

"Unlike our computers that hold user information only for so long to save memory space the Wraith tech holds it all. So, I was able to track how long this person has been reading the Wraith database."

"And?" John pushed.

"You're not going to like it," Zelenka replied.

"Oh, just spit it out," Rodney muttered.

"The first entry that I can be sure of was at least six months ago." John's heart dropped.

"How is that possible?" Teyla uttered as she stepped closer.

"Also," Zelenka continued. "It appears that their interest has accelerated. Before we reached Earth they accessed the lab once perhaps twice a month, now it is every few days."

John sighed out angrily. Every few days.

"It is someone in the city," Teyla gasped. "One of our people."

"Lorne got the cameras operating in the lab yet?" John asked Zelenka.

"Yes, I'm on my way to the secure station where we are going to set up the monitoring system."

"Good, we're going to have someone on duty there around the clock to watch those screens, and Rodney's got a tracking system up and running." Zelenka nodded and turned away. "Good work," John added before the man left.

John turned towards Teyla and Ronon's respective worried and stern looks. "I do not understand," Teyla said. "Carson has only been stationed here full time since we reached Earth."

"The lab was set up for him after he was defrosted," John pointed out. "The technicians and Keller were using it when he was off travelling around Pegasus."

"Uh oh," Rodney stated abruptly and they all turned towards him.

"What is it?" John demanded as he tried to understand the displays in front of Rodney, but it was all columns of numbers again.

Rodney pointed towards one set of numbers. "I think we're giving out some sort of signal."

"What?!" John demanded. "What kind of signal?"

Rodney began tapping away on the board again. "I don't know yet. It's so low it's hidden in the general background energy given out by Atlantis. But, these figures are ever so slightly elevated, barely above the normal range. It might be nothing," he tapped away on the computer. "It's been raised for months…"

"How long Rodney?"

Rodney was looking from screen to screen of data so fast that John knew he was working as fast as he could, but John's patience was weakening. Had someone been tracking them? How long? Had they lead the way straight to Earth? The screen stopped changing and Rodney stared up at it, running his finger down one long column and then he muttered to himself and pulled up another screen and finally turned to face them, his expression as worrying for John as knowing something bad was coming. "Since the day Michael invaded the city," Rodney announced.

"What?! We scanned the city, all of it, after it was over," John protested. How could he forget how that day had ended? He had been forced into a one on one with Michael and had been getting his ass kicked when Teyla had arrived. Then he had watched her make a choice that had finally gotten rid of Michael. "How come no one picked this up before?" he asked through his teeth.

Rodney opened his mouth and closed it again. "I don't know. It's so low it's practically unnoticeable."

"Practically?"

"Look," he tapped away again on the board. "It started off as like a micron above normal, which is well within normal range, but then it spiked around the time Todd's ZPMs were installed, as everything did with all that new power, and it's been higher since then. It could be a glitch, or it could be someone using the available energy of the city as a mask," he suggested. "And with the cloak up all the time now we're using quite a bit…"

"What kind of signal, Rodney?" John demanded.

Rodney's face paled slightly. "Umm," he turned to glance at the screen again. "A subspace one…but it's tiny – there's no way it could be sending out anything other than the most basic of signals."

"Like where we are?" John asked and Rodney nodded. "Can a subspace signal that small travel back to Pegasus?"

"I doubt it," Rodney replied but it was weakly delivered. "Look, if we find out the source of the signal I'll be able to completely isolate it from the background and work out what it is and how strong it is."

"Okay, where is it coming from?" John asked.

Rodney turned back to the screen. "I think it's coming from the central part of the city, but it's so weak we're going to have to walk round with hand scanners to find it. It'll probably take time."

"Let's get on it, then, but we need to keep this as quiet as possible. Isolate the signal as best you can and we'll organise into groups to find this thing," John ordered as he turned and tapped his radio. He has some planning to do, but at least it looked like no one from Earth had breached their security, that was something at least!

------

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Something was wrong. There was a soldier down the hall from the lab and they appeared to be lingering, far too alert for the regular patrol duties. Which meant that his viewing of Doctor Carson's research may have been discovered, and perhaps the hidden items as well.

He stepped carefully away from the corner and continued on what he hoped would appear to be a normal walk around the city on his way to visit his friends in this sector. In his mind he ran through the planned emergency procedure. He needed to make sure that the items, if they remained undiscovered, were hidden somewhere else, just in case. And the signal…he needed to disable it for now, for if they were to find it they may be able to discover that he was the one who had been checking it. Just one hair, fibre or fingerprint would be all they would need.

He passed an open doorway and heard those inside talking about the city's computers being checked and he knew his suspicion had been correct. He quickened his steps as soon as he was far enough away from anyone who may hear him. He broke into a run as soon as he felt safely alone, down the next corridor and into a transporter.

His breathing was fast and fearful, and he hated that weakness. If they were to find out…he had so much to lose and nowhere to run. No, if he could hide the evidence and stop the signal then they would not discover them.

He ran down a corridor through a mostly empty building along the quieter areas of the city's east pier. He regularly visited the pier for a walk or to run, so his presence here now would not be questioned if anyone were to see him. Two corners later and he crouched down to open the panel. He reached down into the chill of the empty space and his fingertips caught against the sealed box. He reached in with his other hand and pulled the box up into the light. It would be unwise to carry the box around so he would leave it here once it was emptied. He broke the seal and removed the two smaller containers from inside. He slid them into separate pockets of his jacket, and then returned the box and panel to their original place.

He stood quickly and hurried on with his 'run'. As he did he slipped one container out of his pocket and opened it to reveal the two vials inside. One could be used against anyone, but the other had been suggested for use against only specific members of the city, one in particular. He closed the container up and returned it to his pocket.

As he emerged into the light of the pier he glanced around, noting that he remained alone still – no one had seen him. He would turn back towards the city after a few minutes, to make it look good, and then he would head up the main tower to disable the signal. Then it would all be fine, for now. The city would no longer be traceable, but at least it would remain on Earth and not back in Pegasus. He could continue his mission in secret indefinitely and no one in the city would know any better. There were duties far too important. They were important. He was important.

-------

It had taken time just to isolate the upper area of the main tower as the source of the signal, but it still left a huge area. John had sent out as many as possible with scanners to track it down. The problem was that the signal remained so expertly mixed in with the normal background energy readings of the city. To help isolate it Rodney was shutting down the power of several levels at once, but it was still hard going. John would have loved to be able to shut all the power down in the city so that the alien signal would stand out even its tiniest amount, but he doubted his superiors would be pleased with the media interest that would follow when the city's cloak shut down. So instead it was this more old fashioned technique – hand scanners in the dark.

John was currently leaving the Jumper bay. Two teams covered this level, but it was a huge space and each Jumper had to be checked, so he was by himself when he opened one of the Jumper Bay exits. A long narrow corridor stretched out beyond it and he made his way down its length, glancing continuously at the Ancient life signs detector modified to track the target signal down.

He paused at the end of the corridor. The lights were on emergency level only to reduce the background energy readings, so the corridor was dark and more than a little creepy being so empty. Not many people used this and the upper levels above the Gate Room, which meant that he didn't know them all that well either. He had patrolled around them, but now in the near dark he tried desperately to remember the layout of this level. He was pretty sure that there was an atrium up ahead and as he turned in that direction the signal grew on his scanner. He edged forward, carefully moving the scanner making tiny corrections in his direction as he moved.

The atrium opened up around him and his footsteps echoed for a moment as he stopped in the entrance way. That was when his spidey sense spiked. Instinctively he moved out of the open space of the atrium and pressed himself against a wall within as much shadow as was available. He had pressed the screen of the scanner against his front to hide its light, and now risked pulling it back slightly to look at the screen. He wished it would still show life signs in this mode, but it was fixed on detecting the signal, but all of John's instincts told him someone was close by. It could be a member of the search team, but something deep inside John told him to be careful. Which meant it could very well be the bad guy here to switch off their signal. So John had to get there first.

He moved forward, sneaking looks at the scanner as he went. He was halfway down the wall of the atrium when the strength of the signal grew on the scanner, which meant he was almost on top of it.

--------

He held absolutely still, cursing to himself. His breathing sounded far too loud, but from the slight scuffing sound along the wall behind him he knew that the Colonel hadn't located him yet. How typical that it would be Colonel Sheppard of all people! And the man was moving towards the signal and would be upon it at any moment!

He had to act now and there was only one thing he could do. He carefully and quietly reached into his pocket and carefully opened the container. His fingers caught around the head of the vials. He wished he had separated the vials, but it was too late now.

The air changed nearby and he froze – the Colonel was so close, just around the corner to him. The signal device was across the open space from his hiding place, essentially between him and the Colonel. The tiniest glow appeared through the dark atrium told him the Colonel was consulting his scanner again. He was out of time.

He pulled both vials out of the container and lifted them up by his side. They were labelled with symbols and his fingers fortunately found them by touch alone. He was sure he had the right one and there was no time to second guess himself now. He tucked the other vial back into his pocket and held still listening. The vial was cool in his hand and he ran his thumb over it, making sure he held the dangerous end away from his body.

A shift of air, barely discernible told him that Colonel Sheppard was almost at the corner separating them…

-------

John held himself flush against the wall. He had found the source of the signal if the strength of the signal on the scanner was anything to go by. It was probably across the space from him, most likely hidden behind the arty sculpture that over looked the lower level of the atrium. He cursed himself, he should have called for back up, but by doing that now he would reveal himself to whoever was nearby and clearly not a friendly. If he went for the source of the signal now he would be a target, he would have to find this person first and deal with them.

John edged along the wall a little further. He could see the vague outline of the opening to another corridor a few feet ahead of him. He lifted his sidearm carefully from his thigh and released the safety as quietly as he could, but the click seemed far too loud in the still darkness.

Something moved out from the shadows next to him and John turned towards it, weapon lifted.

"Colonel Sheppard?" A familiar voice asked sounding frightened as they threw their arms up and out. John began to pull back, his finger edging away from the trigger before his higher brain function kicked in and analysed why the hell 'he' would be here. That split second of indecision was all the bastard needed.

John saw the fist coming at his head just in time and ducked aside and he lashed out with the butt of his weapon, knowing a kill shot would not be the best thing here. But his target dropped down and away. A boot kicked into John's knee, but he kept his balance and stayed upright as the man rammed at him hoping to knock John to the floor. John got one elbow between them and was about to slam down the butt of his sidearm on the back of guy's head to knock him out, but something sharp and painful pierced through his back.

John drew in a startled breath, refocusing on defending himself, but suddenly the world was rocking around him. He hit the floor without being aware of falling and the cold of the Ancient floor was a sharp burst of feeling through the numbness that had passed throughout his body, but then on the edges of the cold a new fiery pain burst out from his back. He opened his mouth to cry out, but nothing happened but the violent shudder that shook his body and as suddenly as it had all begun the darkness poured in to claim him.

------

Panting and panicked he stepped away from the still form of the Colonel. How much noise had that all made?

He turned and rushed the small distance to the place where the signal device was concealed. He had enough focus to push the empty vial into his pocket and pull on his gloves, though his hands were shaking with adrenaline. Gloved he reached through the twisted metallic sculpture and caught the edges of the device where it was fixed against the wall behind. He pulled roughly and it came away far easier than he had expected causing him to stumble back, but he remained on his feet. He turned it in his hands and found the simple switch. He hadn't been aware of the extra green glow from the scanner where it had fallen on the floor from the Colonel's hand, but the faint green light died away now, indicating that he had indeed shut down the signal. All he needed to do was escape from this area without anyone else seeing him and to dispose of the signal device.

He hid it under his jacket and walked smartly away through the atrium, trying to appear relaxed. He descended the stairs quickly, pausing once when he heard voices on the next level, but they passed and he moved on. He kept descending stairs until he reached the more populated areas of the city and he headed off in a random direction. He would walk around for awhile, just in case they had seen him on the life signs scans, but he made sure to walk close to as many groups of people as possible. Only then did he head somewhere more private where he could once again conceal these items.

-------

Rodney looked from one screen to the other - as usual working to do more than one thing at once. Radek was at the next station doing the same, so between them they were working four scans at once.

Something bleeped and Rodney turned to his laptop to see the display of the signal had changed. He forgot the screens and turned to the laptop.

"What is it?" Radek asked moving closer as Rodney leant over the laptop. The teams had been working on tracking the signal down for hours, but now something had changed.

"It's gone. The signal."

"Did they find it?" Radek was asking unhelpfully as Rodney activated the radio.

"This is Rodney, did someone find the target?"

A chorus of denials returned to him and then various chatter between the space marines, until Lorne's voice cut through the rest. "Where's Colonel Sheppard? Has anyone seen the Colonel?"

"He's on this level, Sir. He should be down the corridor," someone replied and from the sound of their voice they were hurrying to check.

"Doctor McKay?" Lorne's voice demanded.

"Yes? What?" Rodney asked, feeling more than a little worried that John wasn't responding to calls.

Lorne's answer never came through because suddenly the former voice was calling over the radio. "We have a man down, repeat a man down. We need a medical team to the Jumper bay level, in the atrium."

"What's happened?" Rodney asked over the radio as Lorne did the same.

"It's Colonel Sheppard, he's down. His pulse is weak and rapid. There's no sign of any injury…" various other reports passed over the radio, but Rodney stood frozen as he listened to them until the soft tone of Jennifer's voice joined the others.

Rodney broke out of his tense trance and turned to Radek. "Keep working, I'll be in the Infirmary."

-------  
TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Richard Woolsey had already been tired when the first call had come in from Atlantis about a possible security leak. He had talked with Colonel Sheppard over a secure line twice and only when he had finally been allowed out of his last meeting of the day had Richard boarded the waiting cloaked Jumper. The Jumper had been halfway to the city when the next report had come in and it hadn't been good.

It had taken a further agonising ten minutes to reach the city, for the Jumper to dock and for him to go through the usual scans. Then he was finally able to make his way to the Infirmary. He had been briefed on the city's status every few minutes since the call had come in about Colonel Sheppard and as he finally stepped out of the transporter onto the Infirmary level and headed down the corridor Major Lorne fell into step beside him.

"Anything new?" Richard asked as they walked briskly towards the doorway ahead.

"We've gone over the readings on Colonel Sheppard's scanner and it confirms he had found the source of the signal," the Major reported.

"It remains silent I take it?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Any chance that whatever was creating that signal is responsible for what happened to the Colonel?"

"We have no way to be sure, Sir. We've checked the entire area, there's nothing, but we did find evidence that something may have been attached to a nearby wall, hidden behind one of those metal sculpture things."

They reached the doorway to the Infirmary, but Richard paused to talk with Lorne before entering. He could already see the Colonel's team standing impatiently across the room, their expressions said enough.

"So, the Colonel ran into whoever is responsible for the signal?"

"That would be our assessment. We've gone back over scanner readings and it looks like an extra life sign had been in the higher areas of the city, but there was no way to track it once they joined the more highly populated levels of the city. We didn't know the Colonel was in trouble." The Major was clearly angry about what had happened and was holding some responsibility on his shoulders. Richard knew how the man felt.

"You did all you could. I understand that Doctors McKay and Zelenka are still searching the computers for any other unauthorised access for the past few months. Keep me posted."

"Yes, Sir," Lorne replied, his gaze moving into the Infirmary before he turned away.

Richard walked into the Infirmary. "Doctor Keller?"

The young woman turned to him and he could see the frustration and annoyance in her features. She handed off two tablets to a waiting nurse and then moved away, gesturing for him to follow. He trailed after her, towards where the Colonel's team stood anxiously.

Colonel Sheppard lay across from them, laid out under the Ancient scanner and it was clear that he was completely unconscious. His face was pale and Richard moved his attention to the man's chest to be sure that he really was breathing. "What happened to him?"

"There is no sign of any injury other than a puncture wound in his back. I believe he was injected with something," Dr Keller replied as she moved to her patient's side. "We're performing a deeper scan, full blood work…" she was cut off as a nurse moved swiftly to her side handing her a tablet. "This can't be right," the Doctor muttered. "Scan him again," she ordered.

Richard watched as the green light of the Ancient scanner passed down the Colonel's body and back up. They all turned to the large display attached to the device. "What is it Doctor?" He asked.

"He is showing signs of infection, but the scanner isn't picking up any virus or bacteria."

"And the city would have reacted to something like that," Doctor McKay added from behind.

"Maybe this is something new?" Ronon suggested, his voice betraying his own anger and frustration.

"We can't take the risk that this is some new virus, we need to get him into isolation immediately," Dr Keller announced as she turned towards Richard and the Colonel's team. "Everyone out of here now. I will want blood tests from all of you immediately along with any others who come into contact with the Colonel."

Richard stepped back shocked at the abrupt turn of events, but he moved away quickly and with one last glance back to the disturbingly still Colonel all new horrible possibilities came to mind. He tapped his radio to life. "I want the city locked down, we are going into quarantine. No one is to leave or be allowed into the city until I say otherwise."

----------

"This is my fault," Carson whispered.

Teyla turned to him, reaching out a hand to touch his arm. "No, Carson, this is not your fault."

"If I had realised earlier that someone had been going through my research…"

"You were not to know and even if you had realised sooner, those responsible would have reacted the same way." She squeezed his arm gently before she looked away from him through the wide glass window that separated them from John's very still form in the see-though room in which he was isolated. A medical staff member, dressed in full protective gear, was carefully taking yet another blood sample from John's arm. Teyla watched as the small vial filled with John's blood, and at least that tiny signal that he lived helped. She turned her eyes to his face, so still and disturbingly pale.

"It's my fault, I should have been watching all of them on the life signs scanner," Rodney muttered.

"There's only one person responsible," Ronon stated angrily. "And when I find them I'll kill them."

Teyla felt the same rush of anger inside, but she tried to control it. "We will need them alive, Ronon, so that they can undo what they have done to John," she replied quietly. Ronon's only response was a low growl.

"Let's just hope this isn't some biological warfare," Rodney uttered.

Teyla felt Carson's tension increase beside her. "Hopefully whatever he was injected with will simply wear off and he only needs to fight it off."

"If that is so, then he will," Teyla added as she moved slightly closer to the wide window. "He is strong."

The door to their right opened and Jennifer walked in, looking tired and frustrated. "We have the tests back. It doesn't look like he has been infected with anything we can identify, but there certainly is something in his system. Carson, would you be able to help us out?"

"Of course, anything I can do," he replied immediately.

Jennifer reached out and laid a hand on Rodney's arm, though she spoke to them all. "All of your blood tests all came back normal. Whatever the Colonel was exposed to does not appear communicable by touch or by breath. You are all clear to move around the city."

"We're not going anywhere," Ronon stated. Teyla nodded with him, she would remain here.

"Doctor!" A voice echoed from the radio and they all turned towards the isolation room through the wide window. John's eyes were open. They all crowded forward. "He's awake," the nurse reported belatedly. Teyla heard Jennifer leave the room, but she would need to put her protective clothing on again to enter John's isolation area. The nurse leant over John. "Colonel Sheppard, can you hear me?"

Teyla held her breath as she watched John blink slowly and then he shuddered, his entire body twitching. She watched as he arched his back and she saw his hands tighten into fists, then abruptly he was shifting onto his side, his body tucking up into a foetal position as if he was cold or in extreme pain. She pressed one hand to the glass, hoping he could see them here for him, but she doubted he could see much from his tightly curled up position. He shuddered again, his arms around himself and she pressed her other hand against the glass, wishing there was some way she could help him.

The door inside the isolation room opened and she watched Jennifer enter with another nurse, all of them crowded around John, blocking him from her view.

----------

"As yet, Sir, we have no way to identify the suspect," Richard reported over the video link. On the other end General O'Neill frowned.

"What do you have, Richard?"

"We are currently going through all computer logs for the last six months, hopefully we will find something there that will help us identify this person," Richard replied. "Our best hope at this point is that Colonel Sheppard saw his assailant and will be able to tell us who it was."

"How is the Colonel?"

"Doctor Keller tells me he is semi-conscious, but he isn't in any state to talk to us yet. He appears to be in a lot of pain. He may not even be aware of where he is."

The General frowned. It had been clear to Richard that General O'Neill liked the Colonel and it was not simply from professional concern that made the General worried. "Let us know if his situation changes," he finally added.

"We will. I would recommend that we maintain the quarantine for now, just in case this does turn out to be something communicable," Richard advised.

"Agreed and it won't hurt to keep everyone locked in the city for now. I've ordered a perimeter to be maintained around the city that is not to be broken. Anyone tries and the navy will have them," the General added. "You guys got all you need over there?"

"Yes, Sir, though Doctor Keller may wish for some further medical aid."

"Of course, anything we can do."

"Thank you, General."

"Speak to you soon, Richard," General O'Neill replied before the signal cut off.

Richard let out a heavy breath. He preferred dealing with O'Neill over the other military types, but it was still stressful. He couldn't help feeling responsible for everything in this city and the idea that there was someone in the city who had betrayed them…

He stood up from his desk and walked through to the control room. "Doctor Zelenka?" The man turned at Richard's call. "Have you found anything new?"

"No, not really. We're making our way through all the computer systems, but there is nothing yet. We have discovered one thing – looking back over the logs of the city scans it appears that the signal may have been present before Michael arrived in the city. I've found some archived city scans and I've found the signal in two of them a month before Michael invaded the city."

"So, this might not have anything to do with Michael," Richard pondered. "Could it have been a Wraith signal?"

"It did not register as Wraith, but we cannot be sure, unless we find the actual device that was broadcasting the signal."

Richard frowned. "At least it's stopped now," he muttered. "Maybe they will think the device stopped working."

Zelenka shrugged. "Or it might mean that they will come to look for us," he suggested.

A cold shiver passed through Richard at the thought. "At least with Atlantis on Earth we can defend the planet if someone turns up to find us."

"There is that."

"Mr Woolsey, would you please report to the Isolation room," Doctor Keller's voice asked into Richard's ear.

"I'm on my way."

----------

Carson leant over the desk towards the screen, as if being closer to it might change what he was seeing.

"And you're sure?" Jennifer asked from his right.

He stood back from the desk and looked at her. "See for yourself," he pointed out towards his laptop he had brought up from his lab.

"But, why?" She asked. "It doesn't make any sense to inject him with this, and why is it affecting him like this?"

"We won't know until we get his DNA scan back," Carson replied, sharing her confusion.

The door opened behind them and they turned to see Mr Woolsey walk in. "Doctors," he greeted them, his gaze moving off to the isolation room window on the other side of the desk. "How is our patient?"

Carson looked back towards the small isolation room. John was curled up in the centre of the bed inside and on the furthest side of the room another wide glass window looked through to where the rest of the Colonel's team watched and waited with painfully worried expressions.

"He doesn't appear to be any worse, but we think we may have identified what he was injected with," Jennifer reported. Carson pulled his eyes away from John's back to Mr Woolsey.

"Aye, he was injected with a very complex solution that contained a large amount of sedative to knock him out, as well as another combination of chemicals which I have seen before." He pointed to the reading on the desk screen and then to the laptop.

"What am I looking at, Doctor Beckett?" Mr Woolsey asked.

Carson shifted uncomfortably as he looked down to the chemical structures that he himself had helped develop. "It's a serum that I developed for Michael, at least part of it is. It was designed to bind to selected genes within the target's DNA. It essentially highlights areas of DNA, and in the case with Michael I had to use it to identify those in Michael's target groups who carried the strongest strains of Wraith DNA."

"You mean like Teyla's Wraith gene?" Woolsey asked.

"Yes, but it was also used to find points in the DNA that were susceptible to Wraith gene therapy for Michael's hybrid treatments," Carson added, shaking his head at the memories of what he had been forced to do. He still had nightmares and there were days, like today, when he truly felt he had made all the wrong choices.

"But, Colonel Sheppard doesn't have any Wraith DNA," Mr Woolsey pointed out. "And even if he has some of the susceptible areas to his DNA, why would that affect him this way?"

Carson pointed to the screen with the latest results again. "There is another set of chemicals which I believe may be a catalyst, but what it is causing to happen to the Colonel we don't know yet." He looked up at the isolation room in time to see John shudder again, his body tight and vibrating with the shiver before he stilled again.

"Are you saying the Colonel is being turned into one of Michael's hybrids?"

"No, DNA would have to be added and it took time for that process. This…" Carson looked away from his friend back to the screen. "I think this is an experiment."

"An experiment?"

"When Michael found something interesting he usually simply injected it into a subject to see what it would do. He experimented a lot on people," Carson paused and swallowed past the memories.

"So, maybe the person who did this has been recreating Michael's research and now his experiments?" Jennifer suggested.

"It's possible, but this precise serum the Colonel has bee injected with...it's not in Michael's research we have and I never saw this when I was held by him. Unless he kept it from me, I would say this was developed after I was rescued. This is something new, but close to what I saw him use before."

Carson focused past John again to where Teyla sat on the other side of the glass. She sat leant forward, her elbows on her knees and her jaw supported in her hands as she kept her worried gaze on John. "If I had never helped Michael…" Carson added to himself.

There was a pause around him and he felt their support and Jennifer's hand touched lightly against his arm. But, despite all the times they told him that Michael's actions were not his responsibility, Carson knew that they partly were. Michael may have used the weapons, but Carson had helped create those weapons in the first place.

"We are running a complete DNA screen on the Colonel," Jennifer continued for him. "To see where this substance has bonded to his DNA. That will give us an idea as to what is happening to him. We will just have to wait for that and go from there."

"Has he been conscious again?" Woolsey asked carefully.

"Barely, but he's unresponsive to questions. He seems to be in pain, and perhaps cold. His system originally reacted to the injected serum like it was an invading virus or bacteria attacking his system, and his immune response has increased his temperature slightly. We are concerned about giving him any pain relief as we can't predict how that will react with this serum," Jennifer reported.

Carson looked away from Teyla to John again and a deep worrying feeling settled in his belly. There was no explanation to it, but something told him this was going to turn out to be far more complicated than it appeared. He looked back down to the test results in front of him, but there was nothing new there. He had to have patience and ignore that feeling in his gut that told him to panic. It was a reaction that all doctors learnt to control, or they didn't get very far through medical school. Perhaps it was because he was so personally involved in his patient, as well as being involved in some small part in the serum's manufacture, but there was something else. Maybe it was from his experience of being in Michael's presence, for he knew that when Michael had done something then it rarely just blew over without any consequences. Even if this serum hadn't been manufactured by Michael himself before he died, and instead by some weird copycat, it still didn't change the fact of Michael's nature…a nature that Carson himself helped to twist all those years ago with that first retrovirus. Carson let how a heavy sigh of frustration – everything was so complicated and conflicted. He shifted his attention between the research on his laptop, the test results and his friends beyond the window.

"Are you any closer to finding out who did this?" he asked Mr Woolsey.

Woolsey pulled his attention from John in the room beyond. "No. Truthfully, Colonel Sheppard is likely to be the only one who can tell us who is responsible."

"Perhaps we should screen everyone in the city, in case someone is infected with something like a Goauld again," Carson suggested.

"It's worth doing, and it certainly would be a slightly better explanation than finding out one of our own is behind this…"

"Doctor," a nurse appeared through the doorway, a tablet in her hand. Carson just barely stopped himself from grabbing for it, waiting for Jennifer to take it instead – it was her Infirmary after all. She took it and immediately held it for him to see as well. "My God," Carson muttered. "That can not be right," he added as he glanced up at Jennifer.

She pressed a button on the screen and another set of results came up. "It is though."

"This is Iratus here…" Carson indicated the one highlighted section and Jennifer nodded, tapping the scene to extend the results. "What the?" Carson muttered.

Jennifer shook her head, bemused as he was. "If it weren't for the Ancient's DNA readers it might have taken us months to find this, if at all, we had no idea about these..."

"What is it?" Woolsey asked worriedly impatient.

Carson's mind was working though, and he looked up through the observation glass at John's huddled figure. "It's almost as if this was designed specifically for the Colonel. With his Ancient gene…and that he was infected with the old retrovirus," Carson looked away. Yet more of his mistakes that had come back to haunt him and hurt his friends.

"Doctors!" Woolsey pushed.

Jennifer looked up at the city's commander and turned the tablet for him to see. "The serum Carson told you about, that seeks out target genes in the DNA, well it found a hell of a lot in the Colonel." She pointed to the bright highlighted areas all along the diagram.

"But, I thought you said it attaches to Wraith DNA."

"That was the version Michael was using, this has been altered to seek out other types of DNA. In this case two other types of DNA - Iratus and Ancient DNA." She shifted the tablet to change the diagram to make it clearer for Woolsey.

"You see these areas of DNA here? Most of it is filled with genes that are completely unnecessary and remain switched off, inactive. They make up a massive part of our DNA, but they code for genes that we no longer need, that the evolution of our species has moved us away from. Theoretically within this old unused, or Junk, DNA there are codes for how to be almost any creature from our past evolution. It looks like that when the Colonel was infected with the Iratus retrovirus several years ago it appears that some of that Iratus DNA remained linked in with his Junk DNA. This serum of Michael's has sought it all out."

"What does that mean?" Woolsey asked carefully. "That he is going to turn into that creature again?"

"No, there certainly isn't enough of that original retrovirus DNA left, but there is some, hidden away in his Junk DNA. Truthfully, it isn't that unlikely considering the enormity of what happened to him when he was infected with the retrovirus. He was lucky that Carson and his team were able to counteract it so effectively. But, there appear to have been some consequences, which only this serum has highlighted," Jennifer explained.

Carson looked away to John and back again. "We returned his DNA to how it was before, but we stopped once he returned to normal. We had no clear way of checking his Junk DNA. Perhaps it mutated the natural genes somehow. It's inactive anyway…" Carson pondered.

"But, there is more going on here. This section of DNA here," Jennifer pointed to it on the handy diagram of DNA strands. "This is the Colonel's Ancient gene, which means that this serum of Michael's also sought out Ancient DNA."

Carson leaned in to look at the results again as Jennifer continued. "But that part of the serum didn't highlight just that ATA gene we know about, it's attached to a whole series here. Which means that it's very likely that these elements of the Colonel's Junk DNA are Ancient in origin as well." Carson nodded along with her, his mind turning with the new knowledge.

"What does this all mean?" Woolsey pushed.

Carson lifted his eyes to meet Jennifer's. "It means that the catalysing agent in the serum, is most likely activating these genes."

Carson looked over his shoulder into the isolation room. "Iratus, Human and Ancient all together in one," he whispered.

"That sounds like something Michael might have wanted to…experiment with," Jennifer said.

"What can we do for him?" Woolsey asked.

Carson frowned as he watched another shudder pass through John. "Maybe we can use the same technique as before, a retrovirus of our own," he suggested.

"That is going to be difficult because the catalysing agent is still in his system in very high quantities. If we try and add a new element into his system it may very well overwhelm his body completely…" Jennifer didn't need to finish the sentence. "And the problem we have is that this is his own DNA that is activating, it is not as if something from the outside is being added that we can remove. Only the catalysing agent is from the outside."

"But, the Iratus DNA is not his," Woolsey argued.

"It is if his DNA mutated in its presence all those years ago. It means that all his scans since have included that new mutated version, and since Junk DNA isn't active we would have had no way to know that this mutation had occurred. DNA mutates naturally, it is part of life and vital for maintaining variety in the gene pool of any species. Given time we may be able to develop a gene therapy to switch off these newly activated genes, but it will take time and who knows how someone would react to that length of treatment. It may mutate his DNA even further."

Carson nodded along with all she said. "Though, perhaps once the catalysing agent is depleted in his system the targeted Junk DNA may return to its former inactive state."

She turned to him. "You think the genes may become inactive again when the agent is gone?"

"He may return to normal, or at least we will be able to treat him once it's gone."

Mr Woolsey frowned deeply. "So you want to let this experiment of Michael's run its course and then try and treat him afterwards? Won't that be too late?"

"It may be best if we let the agent's levels begin to drop and hopefully it should be reversible. These Junk DNA genes are not meant to be active, so they may switch off easily enough."

"So we can only wait?" Woolsey clarified.

Carson exchanged a glance with Jennifer. "No, we treat him as best we can until then, but truthfully we have no idea how this is affecting him and ultimately we have no idea how Human, Iratus and Ancient DNA can all work together like this. If he's lucky everything will simply return to normal."

Woolsey's frown remained, deeply creasing his forehead.

"We'll try to counteract the catalysing agent for now and see what happens." At least they knew what they were dealing with now and the surge of purposefulness filled Carson.

"Very well, let me know how it goes. And if he wakes up enough to talk, please make sure to ask him who did this to him," Woolsey said before he turned and left.

"Maybe if we can find whoever did this they may have more information on the serum and maybe even something to reverse it," Jennifer suggested hopefully. Carson nodded, but he knew that Michael had rarely cared enough about his subjects to think about making antidotes.

-------

He leant his forearms on the tiny windowsill and wished he could be out on a balcony. Where was he going to hide the evidence? He had dismantled the signal device as best he could and he was sure it would be unrecognisable, but there were very clever people in this city. Doctor McKay could probably just look at the small pile of dissembled pieces and know what it was. Would they be able to find him if they did? Where should he hide the pieces? And the empty vial - where should he dispose of that? He didn't want to try and break it into pieces because he had seen what the contents had done to the Colonel and he didn't want to risk that for himself.

He had heard that the Colonel was partly conscious, which worried him greatly. What if the Colonel was able to talk? He hoped that wouldn't happen, but how could he be sure? And the city had been put into lockdown, which meant that he couldn't even get outside. If they found out about him – where could he run?

There were possible escape plans, but the ultimate choice was the possibility of returning to Pegasus. He could not risk hiding on Earth for Atlantis to return to Pegasus without him. Too much was at stake for him to give up so easily. Maybe if the Colonel did remember his face he could argue otherwise, after all the man was sick. He was confused and they had never really liked each other, so perhaps he could pretend it was a lie. A mistake. What evidence would there be otherwise? Only the device now in pieces, and the vials.

He glanced down at the massive drop outside the window. Even if he could throw the evidence off a balcony's edge, he could not risk that some of it fell onto a pier below. He had nowhere to permanently dispose of his evidence. He should just hide everything away completely out of sight, but right now he needed the feel of the container with the other vials in his pocket – he could not risk being separated from those now.

He would wait. No one could prove anything.

-------

She had been here for hours and had barely moved, only walking to the glass and back a few times. Torren was safe with Kanaan, and she had told them not to wait up for her. She would remain here for as long as was necessary.

Carson and Jennifer had explained their theory some time ago and it appeared that their thoughts maybe correct, for there was a noticeable blue shine along the edge of John's forearms, which were tucked around him where he lay still huddled up on the bed in the isolation room.

Her heart ached for him, feared for him and she felt a burning anger at whoever had done this to him. She knew how much he had hated being turned into a 'bug' as he called it, and she knew how much he feared ever returning to that state. She feared that as well, for she could clearly remember how he had been then, how he had frightened them all. He had been strong, powerful, animalistic and almost beyond reason. The memory of that creature had resurfaced more recently when the dream creature had attacked them. It had used John in that converted form attacking her as its nightmare fodder against her. It had felt very wrong to feel even slightly fearful of John, a man that she trusted above anyone. She hated to think that he would be changed again into something that he did not trust, and she worried that she might fear him again.

He shuddered on the bed and her thoughts returned to his pain and not her fearful worries. His eyes were tightly shut, against what she couldn't say. Jennifer and Carson had tried so help him relax with medication, but it appeared that nothing would work on him. She wished that she could be there in that small room with him, to hold his hand and add some form of comfort for him. However, the isolation continued just in case, but she suspected that it now was also intended to contain whatever John became. So, she remained as close as she could, to be there for him.

Rodney had left some time ago, at Mr Woolsey's request, to help with the computer search and Teyla thought it had been a good idea, for Rodney's stress had not helped John or himself. Ronon had left soon after, frustrated after hours of watching their friend endure. He had muttered something about seeing for himself where it had happened. She doubted he would be able to find anything useful, as skilful as he was as a tracker.

Major Lorne had sat for awhile alongside her. He clearly felt somehow responsible, which she told him was unnecessary. He could not have been there to help John and he was helping John now by finding out who was among them who could so easily hurt them.

She watched as Jennifer entered the isolation room again, leaning over John no doubt repeating the questions she asked him regularly – could he hear her, did he know who had done this to him and to tell him that everyone was here for him. Once again it appeared that he could not either hear or reply to Jennifer. Through his ordeal he would occasionally stop shuddering and seem to sleep, though he did not move from his curled up position. Teyla desperately longed to go in there as she saw his face tighten with pain again now and she decided to ask Jennifer if she could go in there.

He was blinking now, so clearly not asleep, and he shuddered again. They had placed blankets over him which had seemed to help but had not stopped the shivers completely. He looked pale, yet slightly flushed, but that may be due to his position. He blinked slowly and then squeezed his eyes shut again. Though he had done this for hours, he remained unresponsive to questions and hadn't reacted to further blood tests or anyone's touch. He appeared to be locked in a world of his own, and it appeared to be a painful cold one.

Teyla realised she had her arms wrapped around herself, as if that somehow satisfied the part of her that longed to hug him, to warm him and help him to find his way home. She remembered his laughter earlier today, and she wondered if that woman truly felt anything for John, why wasn't she here for him? It told Teyla that perhaps, though he seemed to enjoy that woman's company, it had not progressed into anything else. Teyla was surprised how pleased she felt at that.

If only he had been searching the atrium within someone else today, walking with another beside him. She should have been there beside him. She would not have let him walk away without his back covered, but then it had not been her choice. She had been patrolling a lower level and since she could not use the Ancient life signs detector she had felt rather useless. She should have been up further in the tower with him. She was sure she would have stayed near him, would have heard any altercation. She did not blame those who had been on that level with him, for it was like John to wander off into possible danger himself, and usually he walked out again. But, he usually had his team at his back to help.

With Atlantis sat upon Earth, and the Gate shut down, she had found that her life had reduced down to so much less than she would wish. She spent far less time with her closest friends and now sitting here she wondered why she had let that happen. Of course everyone was busy, especially John, but there was always time. In truth she had suspected that John had distanced himself slightly from her of late, perhaps for longer than that. She had not thought on that subject much for it was a place that she had shut closed – the part of her that she had thought closed and set aside. He may have wished to distance himself, but she had also allowed him to and she regretted that now. If he were to die in that small see-through room, she would never again share laughter with him, listen to his stories of Earth, his teasing of Rodney and the way he clearly loved her son. Tears filled her eyes to think that she may lose John now. What if he felt that she had wanted to distance herself from him lately?

She should have visited him in the evenings, should have asked to watch movies again, to share popcorn and ask him to babysit more. But, that had all gone, unless it was a group activity. It had all changed slowly, but inevitably since Kanaan. She wondered now if that distance meant something, or had John just stepped back to give her more time with Kanaan? She would not know.

Jennifer moved out of the isolation room leaving John alone and Teyla with a full view of him again. Her eyes dropped to the faintly blue skin down the outside of his forearms, up to his elbows and the blue disappeared under the sleeve of his infirmary top. She was surprised how much she associated that colour with concern, a touch of fear, but also with a strange sense of… When he had been infected with the retrovirus he had kissed her. It had been a very spontaneous act, and she had not felt threatened by him at the time, just clearly shocked by his new behaviour. They had never mentioned that incident again for all these years, and she had not allowed her mind to dwell on it, feeling it would be inconsiderate to him to think of him out of control as he had been then. He had not hurt her back then, even when he had clear opportunities to do so, and he had hurt others, even Elizabeth.

Then there had been those words form the alien consciousness that had infected him once – that he cared for her more than she knew. She had put the comment down to the alien's attempts to convince her to spare him, but the very suggestion of it had brought forth the part of her that wished and longed. She regretted that she had never said anything, but it was not the Athosian way to do so. He had never said anything to her, so she had concluded that he did not care enough that way for her. Yet, he had distanced himself so thoroughly from Kanaan and her lately. Without the excuse of working in a team and group meals he had stopped trying – was that due to Kanaan, or because he simply did not care enough for her? It was a painful thought and it was perhaps the first time she admitted the thought even to herself. That their friendship was not as strong as she had thought, let alone the other aspects that she wished they had shared, but had never done. How could she grieve for something that had never happened? Was it because she looked at Kanaan and found herself feeling trapped and unhappy? Was she looking back to her longings for John as a means of escape from her relationship with Kanaan? Or was it that she had ended up with this life because she had not let her heart hold out for a man who had not appeared interested?

She wished she were strong enough to say what needed to be said to him in time.

---------

He was aware of pain, but it seemed far away and the more he focused on it the further away it appeared to be, like it was at the end of a very long tunnel. He was connected to it somehow, but it felt remote and did not seem to impact his mind.

It was difficult for him to understand what was happening.

He was aware of bright lights around him and the shaking of his body as if something inside was fighting violently. He thought he heard voices and sounds around him, but again they seemed so distant and not quite important enough to focus on just yet.

Occasionally something new would happen. A strange sensation of space around him was the latest, as if he could stretch his body out indefinitely and the urge to stretch and release his body was very appealing. Yet, even the action of moving seemed a very distant and remote concept right now.

Then, after some time he thought, he felt himself growing heavy, as if his body, at the end of that tunnel, were a weight pulling him down. It wasn't all that unpleasant, but as it pulled on him, drawing him from wherever his mind had been, back into his physical awareness, he became aware of the shaking again.

Information arrived then, from nowhere fully formed into his mind. Someone was sad, someone was missing him. They were nearby as well and that thought produced another new feeling. This one was visceral and seemed to make his belly burn. He opened his eyes against the lights around him, but pain pushed back against him.

Heavy gentle weight rested over and around him, but there was cold right in his centre and despite how much he shuddered with the battle inside, the cold seemed to remain. Tiredness swept over him, so overwhelming that he lost himself for awhile, or perhaps it had been only moments. The sense of drifting away returned and the weight of his body lessened slightly.

Then…movement. He opened his eyes again and saw someone walk past him, their clothing sparkling white in the bright lights from above. Unable to keep his eyes open for very long he closed them, and then opened them again and sure enough the person was still there. It was a woman he was sure, and the white of her clothing seemed to be settling, though it merged with the harsh lights above.

"Hello, John," the woman said. Her voice was so soft and kind that he wished he could manage to smile. But, it wasn't a voice he recognised and that made him more curious. He tried to look up at her face, but the light seemed to blur her features.

"Do not worry about that, John." He took her at her word, but the sense of someone worrying about him returned and he wondered if it was this woman. "They are worried about you, she is worried for you."

This made some sense for some reason and he managed to open his eyes further. Past the lights he saw glass, the light reflecting against it, but he knew that someone important was beyond it. Someone was worrying for him and he wished they were here. Then, some niggling worry shuffled forward into his floating mind for sudden attention.

"They need you, John," the woman said from the right and he tried to look towards her again. Who was she? He tried to clear his vision, blinking several times and finally her features came into sharper focus, but he didn't recognise her still. She smiled. "You and I knew each other long ago, and I promised you that I would be here when you reached close to this point. To help you," she added.

He would have frowned if he was capable. She smiled again. "Do not worry about this, you will wake again later and think I was nothing but a dream," she said softly. "As it is meant to be…unless you wish to join us again?"

He wanted to turn his head to study her further, to see if he could read more from her expression that she wasn't telling him with her words. She tilted her head so that he could see her better and she smiled again. She was oddly familiar now, but in a distant way, as if he had seen her only in passing. He blinked again. How had she gotten into the city?

"That's it, John. Remember who you are now."

He looked away from her back to the glass. Teyla. He had no idea how he knew she was on the other side of the glass as the light was still so bright, but she was there. The cold inside him doubled, seeming to become solid and more painful.

"Yes, you have something important to tell her, to tell them all," the mystery woman said. She was right though, he did. Something important about the city, about…how he had ended up here. It had been dark and he had been looking for something…he had seen someone…yes…

"That's it," the woman murmured. "Keep going."

He remembered the fight, as short as it had been, and the sharp pain in his back. The pain blossomed through him now as if it had been looking for attention and now hurried forward to be fully noticed. Someone had done this to him, but it was city he was worried about…worried about Teyla… The cold kept filling his body and he shuddered violently with it.

"You need to let it pass," the woman whispered from nearby. "It is changing you. Just remember." And he did. Not that again…panic made him breathe fast and heavily, which was something he hadn't been aware he had been doing until now. His body was real around him again and he could feel the bed beneath him, blankets over him. There was a glass wall before him and through it he saw movement. Teyla's face appeared and he blinked to refocus his eyes through the glass. He watched her touch her hand to the glass.

She was in danger he realised. Terrible danger.

"You need to tell her," the woman instructed.

He tried to open his mouth to speak, but he couldn't seem to make the words happen. His body felt raw and different, and the ability to speak seemed so complicated right now. He stared at Teyla, wishing he could somehow tell her with his eyes what she needed to know.

"You can tell her. Tell her, John," the woman told him with increasing urgency as his own fear began to grow.

The city, Atlantis – the signal. They were all in trouble. A swell of aggression flared up through him and he tried to speak again, but he couldn't seem to make it happen, as if his entire head and throat were frozen, burning with cold and pain. The more he focused on his body the more the formally remote idea of pain actually became real. But, he had to tell Teyla. She was in danger.

He looked to the woman beside him. She could tell them for him. She shook her head rather sadly. "You know I can not, I must not interfere. You can do it, she needs you, John."

He looked away from her, back towards the glass on the other side of which Teyla stood. He thought he saw her smiling at him, but the pain of his body was so distracting.

"Do not be afraid, John," the strange woman's voice echoed in his ear as the light of the room seemed to dim.

He had to tell Teyla now, had to save her, she had to know…she had to know what he had done. She was in danger and Torren. Panic had him panting and he heard movement in the room with him, but it wasn't the woman anymore, this was loud and real, the sounds so loud. Smells assaulted his noise and he could feel air drifting in around him as a door opened, intensifying the cold again, but the pain was being to burn. He fixed his eyes on Teyla and something strange seemed to happen. She froze through the glass, her eyes locked with his.

He could feel the black out before it took him and he tried to fight it, to keep conscious, to tell Teyla. He struggled, somehow knowing that if he woke again that things would change and he had to make sure that she knew before he passed out.

He stared at her and as someone blocked his view, he couldn't move his head enough to look round the person, but Teyla had moved, staying where he could see her. He saw her lips move, perhaps asking him something or reassuring him as was her way. But, she was in danger…she had to stop him.

_KANAAN!_

-----  
TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Teyla staggered back as if she had been hit with a physical force. She felt herself falling backwards, felt the edge of a chair against the backs of her legs, but someone's hands caught her and she reached out for their support.

"Teyla, are you alright?" Carson asked worriedly as he helped her right herself.

Only then, when she had found her feet and she looked through the glass, did she actually realise what she had heard. She turned to Carson beside her. "Did you hear that?" She asked hurriedly.

"Hear what?" Carson asked looking worried for her.

"John. You did not hear him?" She asked.

"He didn't say anything, luv," he replied with a measured tone. "And he's unconscious again now," he added.

Teyla rushed back to the glass to see John's still form. He was no longer curled up on his side instead laid out on his back as Jennifer and a nurse were checking his vitals, worrying over him. Teyla could see that the changes to his appearance were speeding up, almost as she watched she could see blue colouring appearing along his cheek bones and eyebrows.

"Teyla, are you alright?" Carson asked.

She stood back from the glass and suddenly things started to form into a pattern in her mind. The nightmares, the strange feelings she had been having lately, as if something dark was close by…very close…in her bed beside her. She turned from the glass and rushed for the door. She tapped her radio as she waved her hand over the sensor and the doors parted for her.

"Teyla?" Carson called out as he followed her.

"Major Lorne, Mr Woolsey, this is Teyla, I need to speak to you immediately," she stated.

"Teyla?" Carson had caught up with her and his warm hand landed on her arm, so she stopped and turned back to him. "What is it?"

"John told me who did this to him," she told him, and her stomach rolled with the thought of it. Surely she was mistaken, yet…

"He told you? How?" Carson asked.

"I don't know, with a thought maybe, I don't know. He was struggling and staring at me and then his voice just arrived in my head," she said as she tried to process what had happened. "I know it sounds strange, Carson, but it will not hurt to follow through with this."

Carson frowned, but dropped his hand from her arm. "Of course."

Teyla turned and began to hurry down the corridor towards the closest transporter.

"Please tell me if his condition changes," she called over her shoulder.

--------

He had been watching them as carefully as he could and he saw when the message arrived through the radios. He tensed as he leant carefully towards Torren's highchair, putting those on the next table between him and the closest solider.

Kanaan began to quickly free Torren from his high chair and was surprised by the tiny frown of complaint that crossed his son's face. Torren began grumbling as he was lifted away from his half completed meal. The first cry of annoyance almost made Kanaan panic. He needed to get Torren away and safe, but the boy seemed ready to begin a full tantrum. Kanaan spoke softly to his boy, holding him close and offering some of the food to distract him as Kanaan quickly reached down for the baby bag, but he saw movement across the balcony through the glass. The soldier from before had turned and was looking at him through the glass – Kanaan was out of time.

A hundred thoughts went through his head at this point. He had very few choices, and after assessing them as best he could, he grabbed the baby bag and ran with Torren towards the exit furthest from the soldier.

Torren cried out unhappily at being jostled, his cry high and loud in Kanaan's ear as he looked over his shoulder towards the soldier who was definitely following him. From the man's movement Kanaan knew he would be cautious, after all Kanaan held a baby in his arms. Of course Kanaan would never ever hurt his son, but they did not know that. He could use that.

He ran the short distance to the next corner to see several people step out of a transporter. He ran for it, reaching it in time to stop the doors from closing. He rushed inside and impatiently waited for the doors to close. Down the corridor he saw the soldier appear, stunner raised. Kanaan reached down into the baby bag and pulled out his own weapon, a more deadly Earth weapon, and held it so the soldier could see it clearly as the doors closed.

Kanaan turned and jabbed at the transporter's control screen, hoping it would activate before they shut it down from the control room. Fortunately he felt the flush of movement and a burst of light broadcast his arrival in the new location. He triggered the doors open and hurried forward, pausing in the empty corridor's intersection. They could not have predicted he would chose such a distant point in the city, but the solider would follow through the transporter soon enough. Kanaan held Torren tighter and ran as fast as he could. He needed some time to begin his plan, some space before they found him. Torren cried loudly in his arms, ignoring Kanaan's attempts to soothe him. Torren had always been attuned to the emotions of his parents and Kanaan tried to calm himself to help ease his son. It did not work for the crying continued.

Two turns and Kanaan reached a staircase and hurried up its steps. He reached into one pocket, then another, trying to remember where he had left the communication device. His hand closed around it in the pocket under Torren and he activated it and then turned it off quickly. It would be enough.

He reached the height of the stairs and peered back down the mesh metal staircase floor as he ran out along the airy corridor. No one was running up behind him, it would take them time to reach him – he had some minutes left yet.

The corridor opened up abruptly into a lofty atrium, this one far more massive than the one near the Jumper Bay had been. He paused, and Torren did the same in his crying, both of them staring up at the wondrous colours of sunset shining through the glass ceiling above them and from the wide windows at the end of the atrium. He ran on past the railing that overlooked the two levels below – from here he could see down two floors. With his back to the end windows of the atrium they would not be able to sneak up on him without him seeing them.

He ran on past the railings to the space before the far windows and finally stopped. There was a stone like table set before the window and two wide chairs against the wall. He dragged the chairs to the table, arranging them to create a basic barrier that would stop Torren from crawling away. He crouched down, pausing in the silence of Torren's whimpers, and still heard no sound of anyone approaching. He turned his attention to calming and soothing his son. As he did so he pulled out the play mat and blanket from the baby bag, spreading them out on the floor between the chairs, and he laid Torren down. Torren looked up at the sunset lighting above him and calmed finally into complete silence as he stared up at the display.

Kanaan offered him one of his favourite toys from the bag and the boy took it absently, far too interested in the colours above him. Kanaan sat back on one of the chairs and took a breath. He reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out the last container. He opened the top and reached in to carefully, reverently, pull out one vial. He closed the container and returned it to his pocket. He had hoped there would be enough time, but he had little choice now. He looked down at his boy and took a steadying breath.

------

Teyla could feel Lorne's eyes on her as she took his offered stunner, and she wrapped her hand tightly around the grip. Then she reached out for one of the spare sidearms. Lorne looked shocked, but Teyla had no time for this. Kanaan had run off with her son and she had no idea what her former lover was capable of doing now. He had been the one to turn off the signal and had attacked John, injecting him with Michael's experimental serum. What had else had he been doing all this time?

She took the sidearm from Lorne, checked the safety and tucked it into the back of her trousers. She turned and saw Ronon watching her. His eyes met hers and she saw much of her own fury in his eyes. Kanaan and Ronon had spent a reasonable amount of time together over the past year and it had pleased her to see them so friendly. Now, she felt that she should apologise somehow to him. He frowned at her as she approached.

"This isn't your fault," he stated.

She fell into step with him as they joined the perimeter around this section of the pier. "Of course it is," she replied. She should have known, she should have listened to her instincts that had told her something was wrong. Though, she would never have thought that this could have been a possibility. She had believed that Kanaan had been restored to himself following Michael's treatments, but it appeared that she had been wrong. She felt a burst of panic to think that there may be others among her people who had presenting a lie to the others. If only she could somehow reach them…warn them. Perhaps when this was over she might be able to convince Mr Woolsey to let her use the Atlantis gate to dial up her people back in Pegasus for even a brief moment in order to warn them. But, that was not important just now – now all that was important was stopping Kanaan and retrieving her son.

"Is he still in the same place?" Lorne asked over her shoulder as they reached the point where Rodney stood with his tablet and life signs detector.

"Yes, they're both still there," Rodney replied, his eyes turning to Teyla. She could see his worry for Torren and his sympathy for her. She nodded to him, but she could not invest in thinking about her emotions any further. All she could focus on right now was anger. She used it to fuel her thoughts and her body as they moved down the corridor.

"What is he likely to do?" Lorne asked her as they moved steadily forward, coordinated with two other teams approaching Kanaan from other directions, and a Jumper hovered over the pier just in case. With the city's outer exits on lockdown all the extra team on the Jumper could do right now was to enter the atrium from the outside balcony if it became necessary. However, Kanaan would see that clearly enough, so it was a backup plan only. But, at least for now the Jumper's crew were able to relay their observations through the tall atrium windows.

Teyla took a breath. "I do not know. The Kanaan I thought I knew would not do this. There is no way for me to predict what he will do," she replied.

"He has nowhere to go," Ronon stated with some satisfaction. "He knows that."

"That could make him very dangerous," Lorne noted as they reached the staircase.

"I can take him down easy," Ronon responded immediately.

"He has Torren though," Rodney pointed out from behind them.

Teyla drew a breath as she suppressed the panic. "I do not believe he will harm Torren," she suggested, but how could she really know that? "He has shown nothing but love and attention to our son," she added and she wasn't sure if it was to convince them or herself.

"Maybe something has happened to him recently?" Lorne suggested as they continued their way up the stairs.

"He has seemed nothing but happy lately," she replied wishing she understood why.

"Maybe something has changed in the last few months, something here on Earth?" Rodney said doubtfully as he puffed from behind them.

"Major Lorne, we are in position," one team reported over the radio.

"Do you have a visual?" Lorne asked, though they were almost to the top of the stairs now.

"Yes, he is sitting looking out of the window at the far end of the atrium just ahead of your entrance position."

"Team Beta are positioned on the second level below the atrium, we have a full view of the exit from his level," another voice reported.

"Everyone, hold your positions," Lorne replied as they reached the top of the stairs.

Teyla lifted her stunner up straight ahead of her as she and Lorne led the group forward and into the light of the atrium.

She saw Kanaan's back as the others had reported. He was seated at the far end but she could not see Torren. Where was her son?

------

"Look at his brain activity," Jennifer remarked.

Carson looked up from his readings to the screen and nodded his agreement. "The Ancient Junk DNA maybe?"

Jennifer nodded. "These levels are close to those we've seen for ascension," she muttered.

Carson glanced down to the computer as the latest blood test results appeared across the screen. "The level of catalysing agent isn't lowering."

Jennifer glanced at the screen with him. "It should have all been used up by now!"

"Unless he's now producing it himself…" Carson pondered.

Jennifer looked up at him. "You think Michael's experiment included something to trigger his body to produce the agent?"

Carson frowned as he tapped the screen to bring up the next screen of results – there was nothing helpful there. "Michael was struggling with ways to keep the hybrid DNA stable, maybe this is part of that experimentation," he suggested.

"Michael wanted Torren because he was a natural stable hybrid of a lesser degree," Jennifer replied.

Carson nodded as he looked up from the screen, through the window to where John lay still except for the occasional twitch. "In a way John is a hybrid as well, as I am, we have Ancient DNA in the form of the natural ATA gene, but what's happening to John implies that there are more genes inherited with it, shut down in the Junk areas of the DNA strands."

Jennifer gestured to the brain activity display. "It may be that the Ancient's abilities were passed on genetically and not simply a case of mediating and working towards ascension through study. We know from that machine that artificially pushed Rodney towards ascension that the DNA plays a large role in that process. Maybe the ability to ascend is still locked away in some of these inactive genes. We know humans can ascend with the help of Ancients, but maybe they passed the ability on to their descendants as well."

Carson nodded as he looked to the display himself. "But, John also has pieces of the Iratus DNA still, despite my past treatment. We have no idea what that will do." He bit his lip, yet again wishing that there were some way he could go back to when he had been treating John for the retrovirus.

"You couldn't have known this would happen, Carson," Jennifer offered. "We're still rather in the dark about how most of the active DNA works, let alone all that's locked away in the Junk DNA. We know most of it is old evolutionary leftovers, but who knows what else is mixed in. Maybe our future evolution is in there as well."

"I should have checked his DNA more thoroughly after he was infected with the retrovirus, but the treatment seemed to have worked, and the screens came back as normal," he muttered.

"Maybe the mutation of his Junk DNA occurred during the treatment process?" Jennifer suggested. "Maybe a side affect of using Iratus stem cells?"

Carson looked back at John as his mind ran through the possibilities. He watched as one of John's arms twitched. A long narrow patch of blue skin ran down the length of John's forearm, thicker towards his elbow, but there were no spines to his body as when he had been infected with the retrovirus. There were other blue patches across his face, and no doubt elsewhere across his body under his clothes, but again the change was still minimal. "The skin changes seemed to have slowed," he said thoughtfully. "He doesn't appear to be in pain anymore."

"His blood work suggests his immune system is settling, which could be a problem as it may mean it is no longer recognising anything wrong with his system."

Carson tilted his head as he ran his eyes back along John's forearm. He vividly remembered when the retrovirus had mutated John so dramatically – remembered the thick scaly skin John had developed. "Maybe, the Iratus DNA was similar to something he already had in his DNA," he pondered out loud. "Maybe old Junk genes humans no longer use are close to Iratus in some way and they mutated easily. Something from far back in our ancestry."

"But, the Iratus is a bug, as Colonel Sheppard put it. Human DNA doesn't code for anything insectoid…"

"If you go back far enough all life on Earth came from the same place, all life started out the same way and diverged into the different forms of life and different species from there," Carson pointed out.

"You're talking about some seriously old DNA," Jennifer replied.

"True, but the Wraith wouldn't have evolved if there wasn't some form of compatibility between Iratus and Human DNA."

Jennifer nodded her agreement. "True, but we're also adding Ancient DNA into the mix here as well. That's DNA from three different galaxies combining!"

"Though, ultimately all life, in at least the Milky Way and Pegasus, was seeded by the Ancients. And we know from those who visited the home galaxy of the Ancients, or whatever they were originally called, that life forms there are pretty much the same."

"This would be a fascinating area of study," Jennifer said and Carson nodded. "To look at the building blocks of life across three galaxies."

"In a way what's happening inside John - those three genetic origins clashing," Carson said.

"The body strives to find balance, for homeostasis. We have to hope that his body finds a way of dealing with the possible conflicts the genes have with each other without killing him in the process."

Abruptly the display screen beside them bleeped violently and they both looked up to see that all of John's brain activity had ceased. Panic and adrenaline pumped into Carson's system as he turned to the isolation room, the shout for a crash cart on his lips, but immediately he understood why the readings had stopped. John was no longer on the bed, the sensors previously monitoring his brain activity left abandoned.

John was abruptly on the other side of the glass from them, staring out at them, his hands pressed up against the glass. Jennifer had gasped beside Carson, the two of them stepping back in shock. John stared at them intently, his expression eerily blank.

Carson activated the intercom to the inside of the room. "John?" He edged forwards towards the glass, the memories of the retrovirus infected John from the past abruptly sharp and too close to what he was seeing now. As he moved closer, Jennifer beside him, he saw that John's eyes looked different, though the way they were fixed on him seemed to suggest intelligence. "John?"

John blinked as they neared and now Carson could see his eyes clearly – the dark central pupils of John's eyes had changed, no longer the normal circles, but now the pupils were cat shaped, Wraith shaped. The first thing Carson thought on that was whether that change had hurt John. His original green irises remained, but they now surrounded catlike pupils that stared out through the glass with that unsettling focus.

"Colonel Sheppard?" Jennifer asked as they moved closer to the window. "Can you understand me?"

John blinked and tilted his head slightly, and then nodded. Carson's tension eased slightly.

"Are you in any pain?" Jennifer asked next.

John looked away from them, towards the opposite glass wall of the isolation room, through which his team had stood before watching over him. John looked to the ceiling and then back to them.

"Teyla?" He asked. His voice sounded strange – the syllables slow and very soft, almost as if it was an effort for him to talk. Again it all reminded Carson a little too much of the retrovirus. But the question from John seemed to suggest his mind was working as it should and that he was worried about what he had told Teyla was good.

"She's gone after Kanaan, John," Carson told him. "She got your message."

John nodded slowly, and blinked equally as slowly. Hopefully his mind was working faster. "Do you know what's happened to you, John?" Carson pressed.

John wasn't looking at him though, he was looking around the isolation room like a man looking for a way out. "John?" Carson asked worriedly.

"Let…me out," John ordered in his soft voice as he turned back to them, his new eyes boring into them through the thin glass. There was a force to his voice that implied violence was on his mind.

Carson and Jennifer shared a quick look. Carson hoped that John's insistence to get out of the isolation room was due to his worry for his team members, for the Kanaan situation, and not that he was feeling trapped and generally violent.

"Colonel, they are handling the situation with Kanaan. The important thing is for us to help you return to yourself. Make you feel better," Jennifer explained slowly, having picked up on the slowness of John's responses as Carson had.

Carson had told Jennifer about the affects of the retrovirus that went beyond the simple reports she would have read. John's transformation back then had been terrifying. His strength and speed had been violent, and he had struggled to control the animal responses he had felt. Only the neural inhibitor had kept him lucid enough, for some of the time, to not hurt anyone too badly. They could not risk letting him out of the isolation room now. Carson wondered how strong the glass was.

"Torren?" John asked slowly, the word arriving abruptly, like he had struggled to speak again.

"Do not worry about them, John," Jennifer. "We need to worry about you right now." John frowned, the new blue shine to his eyebrows and temples making the frown seem darker and sterner. "Tell us how you're feeling," she asked.

A sound rather like a frustrated growl was their only reply as John looked away from the glass, his hands dropping to his sides. Carson noticed that John's fingernails were faintly blue.

"John, we need you to help us, we need to know what's going on," Carson pushed.

John seemed unwilling to let them help him, but that he was up and about was encouraging. It was also a little worrying, for what if the changes were stabilising which would mean that the point of no return would be fast approaching after which his genetic changes may be beyond the point of reversion. Carson tried to explain this to John, but it wasn't clear how much of it was getting through, for John seemed intent on studying the walls and ceiling. His attention finally turned to the Ancient doorway that kept the isolation room properly sealed

"John? Please, do you understand me?" Carson pushed. "We can't let you out, you may hurt someone." That made John pause, his strange eyes turning back to them. Carson pushed his advantage. "We need to understand what is happening to you."

John lifted his hands and Carson watched him look at the blue of his nails and arms. Carson would have expected fear on John's face, for Carson knew how the past retrovirus mutation had haunted him, but John's expression appeared to remain passive. He touched his hands to his face and neck, perhaps seeking out the thick skin and spines from last time.

"This is not the same as before, John," Carson explained to him. "This is something new. You were injected with something we think Michael developed." John's passive expression shifted into something very dark and another low growl could be heard over the radio link. Carson kept going. "It seems that we may have missed some of the retrovirus changes to your DNA from last time, and what you were injected with is reactivating it." John looked down at his hands again. "But, it also appears to be activating other parts of your normally dormant DNA, which are possibly linked to your Ancient gene. We're thinking that perhaps the ATA gene isn't the only change in a carrier's DNA, and these other Ancient genes are being activated as well." John didn't seem to react any further though, his attention shifting from his hands to the glass walls around him again.

"He may not be able to understand us properly, Carson," Jennifer said quietly.

"Yes, but remember his brain activity. The retrovirus before dulled his higher mental abilities, but perhaps the Ancient genes might keep him mentally alert," Carson suggested hopefully.

"Or it could be a confusing mix of the two, which is making it difficult for him to understand us completely," Jennifer added. She stepped up to the glass. "Colonel, we need you to lie back down and put the scanner's band back around your head, then we can see how this is affecting you. We may need to take more blood samples as well."

John looked from her to Carson and back, his slit eyes so strange that Carson had to wonder if Jennifer was right. "John, you need to work with us as long as you can."

John drew in a breath and then turned to look back towards the other window as if someone had suddenly called to him. "Kanaan," he muttered darkly.

"I know you want to help them catch him, but they would want you to be here," Carson reasoned, but John was walking towards the sealed doorway again. He moved slowly, his head moving as if he was listening to something. Carson saw the tension in his body building, as if he was preparing to run. "John?"

"Something…changing," John muttered.

"Yes, you're changing John, but it may be slowing now, or stopped. We need to treat you."

John looked back at them, his head snapping round so quickly that it startled Carson. "Let me out," he stated the aggressive order.

"You know we can not do that, Colonel," Jennifer pointed out.

John narrowed his eyes at them, almost as if he was straining at something, but with a frustrated sounded growl he turned back to the door, moving right up to it, his eyes sliding around the frame.

"He can't get out, right?" Jennifer whispered to Carson worriedly.

Carson shook his head. "It's a sealed room. The Ancients designed it…" A crash from inside the isolation room had them leaning against the glass to see that John had smashed his hand into the blank wall panel by the door. Carson remembered that temper from before. "He can't get out, there's no way," Carson muttered, but doubts began to crowd together – when was anything a sure thing in this city? He watched in horror as the isolation door slid open abruptly.

He heard shouting from the guards on the other side of the door, but as Carson ran around the corner towards them he heard stunners and then cursing. He got to see John's back disappearing through the wide open doors of the lab and the energy of a guard's stunner dissipating ineffectively over his back.

"Colonel Sheppard has escaped from the isolation area," a marine shouted over the radio.

It was all repeating itself again, but at least this time John hadn't attacked anyone yet.

------

Teyla inched out into the atrium, her eyes fixed on Kanaan's back, but though he must surely have heard them approach he did not move. She exchanged a look with Lorne and Ronon from where they were leading the two teams fanning out around the atrium, working their way down towards the corner where Kanaan had trapped himself. It was almost as if he was waiting for them.

"Kanaan?" She called.

His head turned slightly and finally he looked over his shoulder towards her. His face was strangely pale and he did not look well. "Kanaan?" She asked, for a moment hoping that it was some virus or something else that had led him to behave like this.

"Hello, Teyla," he replied as he finally turned in his chair to face her, several metres still between them. Her eyes moved from his face to the area around the table, for she thought she heard Torren grumble. Her eyes passed over what looked like an empty syringe on the table.

"What have you done, Kanaan?" She demanded, her heart hammering in her chest. Had he done something to Torren? "Where is Torren?"

Kanaan looked down the floor beyond his chair. "He is here, playing happily," he replied as he bent down and suddenly Torren was in his arms and Teyla held still, as all the others in the atrium did. Teyla's eyes ran over her son and saw nothing that worried her. The little eyes met hers and she saw what looked like childlike confusion and he reached out towards her. The sight pulled at her heart, but she turned her eyes back to Kanaan as she edged slightly closer, but she was still far from them.

"Give Torren to me," she gently ordered.

Kanaan pulled Torren closer him, tucking him into his chest protectively. "He is fine with me, Teyla. I would never hurt him. He is too important." A new shiver of worry went through her to hear that, for she had heard it before from another.

She looked at Kanaan's face again and saw that his skin looked even paler than it had a few minutes ago. "What have you done to yourself, Kanaan?"

"I am becoming stronger once more," Kanaan replied.

"You mean like Michael made you," she guessed, for she had seen him look like this before.

Kanaan nodded. "Of course it is not exactly the same, but it is enough for now."

"Why, Kanaan?" She asked as she moved closer.

He stood up, the movement abrupt. Everyone around the atrium reacted as all the weapons retrained on Kanaan, but with Torren was in his arms they were all especially cautious. Teyla held out her free hand towards him and slowly lowered her stunner. "Just give Torren to me, Kanaan. You would not want him to be hurt."

"I am doing this for Torren, Teyla. For all of our people."

She frowned at him. "How is this helping them, Kanaan?" She asked confused.

"To stop the Wraith. Once the hybridisation is finished there will be no need for them to cull, and we will all be strong enough to stop them if they try."

Teyla knew her mouth had dropped open. "Those are Michael's words, Kanaan, not yours."

Kanaan moved forward, Torren held close to his chest. "Yes, and he is right. There are too many Wraith, Teyla. Through Michael's work we can finally stop the cullings."

"Michael was mad, Kanaan. He was responsible for killing thousands."

"And how many millions have the Wraith killed over the centuries? So many of our own people, your parents, mine, they all fed the Wraith. Now, the Wraith fear that killing humans will hurt them."

Teyla shook her head. "Kanaan, you know that they simply killed off populations that had become immune to their feeding. It made no difference, but to cost so many lives."

Kanaan moved towards her again. "No, Teyla, it did make a difference. It slowed the Wraith's culling and increased the battling between them. It was a horrible choice, but ultimately it will save millions in the future. When the offer of becoming a hybrid is presented to them, the Wraith will take it. They will no longer depend on humans to live. They will have a choice, like with Doctor Keller's treatment, if it had worked."

Teyla looked into Kanaan's eyes and saw that he truly believed what he was saying. "Kanaan, this is madness. Michael is dead and no one will ever become a hybrid again."

Kanaan paused, a little over a metre from her, and Torren waved his arms towards her, asking to be held. "No, Teyla. Michael lives."

Teyla looked up from her son and into Kanaan's eyes. For a moment she wondered if she was in one of her nightmares, for the return of Michael from the dead had been one of her most terrifying of thoughts. "No, Kanaan, he is dead. I saw him fall," she whispered back.

"You saw one of him fall," Kanaan replied.

"No," she whispered.

Kanaan smiled sadly, as if he was sorry to upset her. "He was a copy of Michael, like Doctor Beckett is of his former self."

"No," Teyla repeated. "You can not know that. You were not in the city that day," she added. And suddenly she realised how lucky that circumstance had been. Horror resurfaced with the realisation. "You helped him to invade Atlantis?"

Kanaan looked regretful for a moment. "I had to Teyla. I waited for the right time when a Jumper had left the city, then I visited our people and sent a message to Michael."

"He had planned to kill everyone in Atlantis," Teyla spat out, unable to believe that Kanaan had been involved in the events of that nightmarish day.

"The copies of Michael, they are not always entirely stable, due to the confusion of his DNA."

"Copies! How many are there?" She demanded.

"Enough," Kanaan replied.

"Where are they?" She asked fearfully.

"I do not know exactly. You have met at least two of them," he told her carefully before he stepped forward. "Teyla, please understand I did this to help save us all. Something needed to be done against the Wraith and despite how much they wanted to help, those from Earth are not capable. They have even stolen this city from our home galaxy, leaving everyone back there helpless with no defenders. We need to do something to help ourselves and Michael presented the best option."

Teyla shook her head. "No, Kanaan, this is far from the best option. You have betrayed our people, our son and me."

Kanaan looked pained at her words. "No, Teyla, I did this because I love you and our people. And our son was the way to help them even further."

Another cold realisation hit her at that. All thoughts of her plan to reach for Torren floated away as she looked up at Kanaan through her shock. She tried to speak for a moment, but no words came to her. She was vaguely aware that Ronon had made his way around the atrium and was approaching Kanaan slowly from behind, just passing the table with the empty syringe upon it. But, all she could think of was what Kanaan had said. "You planned this…before Torren…"

Kanaan looked down to Torren who was crying now in quiet unhappy whimpers. She watched in horror as Kanaan held their son closer, his unnaturally pale cheek against their son's head, as he bounced him gently in his arms and the cries lessened. Kanaan looked back up at her. "I have always loved you, you know that. For so many years I have wanted for you to love me in return, since we were children. It was only after we had been together for months that Michael approached me."

Teyla shook her head. "Which explains why I became pregnant despite our precautions."

Kanaan took another step towards her. "I took one ingredient out of your tea, only one, hoping that we could create a child together."

The deep sense of betrayal she had felt before now was swamped by this revelation. "You have tricked me from the beginning."

"No, Teyla! I love you and I love our son. I did this to help make you safe, to create a world in which our family could be safe and strong. I would never hurt you," he insisted.

"You are hurting me," she argued. "You betrayed me, Kanaan, and I should have known."

"Are you so unhappy with our son? Did you not want him?" Kanaan spat. "We made him together out of love, not for Michael, but for us."

She shook her head, "No, Kanaan, you will not use our son against me that way." Horrible facts were all patch-working together – thoughts and wonderings over the last year that she had simply ignored or believed to be her fate and destiny at work. She had been so wrong.

"Our son is special, even if he had no great genetic strength. You would hate me because I wanted us to have a family?"

"You made him for Michael," she said back as she shook her head. "I should have seen it all this time. How did Michael know I was pregnant with your child after our people were taken? Because you had planned it with him. Did he wait till he knew I carried Torren before he took our people?" She could not believe how blind she had been. "And my escape from Michael's ship – Michael let us go, didn't he? He only left one guard on my door and even after it became clear that my team were on board his ship he didn't send guards to find me. He let us leave, with you. He stole our Jumper, but did not wait to capture us when we tried to find it." It was as if she had been blind before and now new knowledge flooded into its place. The past looked upon with new eyes.

Kanaan looked away, his gaze sliding to his shoulder, indicating he was well aware of Ronon's presence behind him. "Michael's copies are rather unstable, some more lucidly in control than others. One in particular was obsessed with keeping you as well as Torren. I tried to convince Michael that the best place for our son was with us, and when the opportunity arose for those of Atlantis to be deceived into thinking Michael dead so that he could continue his work without interruption we took it. He had taken his scans of Torren before the birth and took samples from both of you." He looked back at Teyla moving closer to her. "Once I saw Torren, Teyla, our son." He looked down at Torren in his arms. "I was even more convinced in my decision. We can help save our people."

"And how many died at Michael's hands, Kanaan?" She demanded.

"I wish I could bring them back, but I cannot. Michael's ways, especially that copy that died in this city, were not the best, but the final result is important."

"You are no better than the Wraith, Kanaan," Teyla stated. "You may not have killed our people yourself, but you are responsible."

He barely hid the impact of her words as he looked over his shoulder towards Ronon. "Surely you understand, Ronon? To use any means possible to stop the Wraith. Would you turn down the chance to be as strong as them and to take away their ability to feed on us?"

Ronon sneered along the sight of his weapon and Teyla saw his finger shift on the trigger. It was only Torren's presence in Kanaan's arms that was holding everyone back from stunning Kanaan. If Teyla could get closer she would be able to catch Torren when Ronon stunned Kanaan. She inched closer.

Suddenly the sound of stunner fire vibrated down the atrium and Teyla moved towards Kanaan, but he dodged aside so quickly that she almost lost her footing. As she righted herself she saw the burst of energy ahead of her and saw Ronon collapse to the ground. Confused she looked past him, past the sight of Lorne collapsing under stunner fire, and someone else stepped out of the shadows.

------  
TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Kanaan stepped round Teyla quickly, feeling the renewed extra power to his limbs and he lifted his stunner and took out the three soldiers who had been behind Teyla. They had been focused on the newcomer and only one managed to fire at Kanaan, but the shot went wide, probably from fear of hitting their own people, and Kanaan stunned him.

"Stop or I will stop using a stunner!" Tolim's voice echoed down the atrium. The last few soldiers across the far side of the atrium froze, they attention divided between Tolim at the far end and Kanaan, who moved down the atrium and stunned them quickly as they hesitated. From the level below he heard shouting and some shots were fired up towards Tolim, but he simply stepped back into the shadows away from the railings overlooking the lower level.

"I see one more face down there and I will kill all your people who lie up here," Tolim shouted down at the people on the level below. The silence was their reply, but no doubt they would be planning another move.

Kanaan turned back towards Teyla, who stood still under Tolim's attention. He had a stunner in one hand and a sidearm in the other. "Sit down at the table, Teyla," he instructed.

A flush of protectiveness filled Kanaan as he moved towards them. "She will not cause trouble, Tolim."

Teyla glared at him over her shoulder. He wished he had explained himself clearer to her. She may not agree, but the outcome would be for the greater good and she would have to forgive him eventually.

"Where is the vial?" Tolim asked from across the atrium, his voice filled with anticipation.

"I have it," Kanaan replied. "Teyla, please sit down up there," Kanaan suggested, indicating the chair at the far end of the atrium where he had originally been seated when she had arrived. She held his gaze for a moment longer and then moved forward. Kanaan stayed a good distance from her, knowing that she would take any opportunity to attack him now. He suspected it was only that he held Torren that stopped her, and perhaps the safety of those others lying incapacitated on the floor around them.

She sat down tensely on the chair and looked up at him. Kanaan reached into his pocket, into the container and pulled free the remaining vial. He moved towards Tolim, trusting him to watch Teyla, and injected the contents into Tolim's arm. "You should begin to feel the effects immediately," he reported.

"Tolim, how can you do this?" Teyla demanded as Kanaan set the empty vial down, but she must understand that, like him, Tolim remembered the days of working with Michael and the prospect of what could be possible.

Tolim looked down at her. "To make everyone safe and that is the last I will speak of this."

"And what will you do now?" She asked them. "You are trapped up here."

"We have plenty of hostages now," Tolim replied. He sighed then, no doubt feeling the restorer in his veins.

"And you will kill innocents to get what you want – how are you any different to the Wraith?" She spat.

"This is for the greater good, Teyla. You as a former leader should understand that," Tolim replied.

"And for what exactly are you prepared to sacrifice yourself for?"

Kanaan looked down at Torren in his arms. "For our son. He is all that is important."

He knew Teyla could not argue with that, for she would do anything to protect her son. He looked up at her, expecting to see understanding, but her face was pale.

"What are you going to do with Torren?" She asked. Kanaan wished he could take the fear from her eyes. He moved closer.

"He will never be harmed, Teyla. He will be looked after as the most precious being in two galaxies as he is. You need not fear for him."

"You are taking him to Michael," she concluded.

"You left us no choice. I had hoped to live here happily with you and Torren, but after Colonel Sheppard saw me…"

Her expression shifted into anger again. "Since you attacked him."

Kanaan frowned down at her, this was a subject he did not wish to wander into. "He should survive the injection. I had hoped to gather information from the medical records on his reaction for Michael, but that will not be possible now."

"He should live? Listen to yourself," she said. "Every life is important, Kanaan."

"We have to think of the greater good."

"And at what price?" She demanded passionately.

Kanaan frowned down at her. "Is the price too high when it is Colonel Sheppard's life?"

She frowned up at him. "Any life is too many."

"But you would happily sacrifice my life now to stop me, yes?"

He enjoyed the shocked worried look to her face, but his short victory was far too short lived, for it told him how she was distancing herself from him. "In your mind I am a target now, so if my life is ended how will you describe that – for the greater good perhaps?"

She looked down at Torren.

"Would you not sacrifice another for Torren?" He pushed. "Or is Colonel Sheppard the only one you would not want to risk?" Kanaan knew the anger and jealousy was clear in his voice, and he regretted letting her hear it, but part of him had wanted to push her on this subject for so long.

She looked up at him, her eyes narrowing.

"You do not think I have seen your longing looks at him, that I have always seen them?" He demanded.

"Kanaan," Tolim warned from his side. "We need to focus on our mission."

But Teyla had her eyes locked with his and Kanaan realised he had made a mistake, but he could not back down now.

"Unlike you, Kanaan, I have remained faithful and honest," she said.

It should not have cut him so deeply, yet it did. "How honest is it to love two men at once?" He pushed.

Her eyes narrowed and the moment hung in the air. "I never said that I loved you, Kanaan," she said finally.

He knew he had been unable to hide the pain her words inflicted and that he would never know if she had truly meant them. She would never be honest with him now and he would never know the truth. It was true that she had never used those exact words of love, but it had been implicit had it not? They had enjoyed a happy relationship before on New Athos and they had a son together. He had assumed she loved him, and only now did the realisation hit him that she may never have felt for him as deeply as he felt for her.

Kanaan stepped back from her, trying to hide his emotional conflict. He hugged Torren closer to him - at least he could be sure of his son's love. Teyla watched him with a carefully controlled blank expression, only twitches of worry could be seen as she glanced down at Torren.

Tolim was correct; they needed to move along with their mission. Kanaan turned towards Tolim and reached for the radio he had removed from a soldier.

---------

"This is Kanaan, I wish to speak to Mr Woolsey," the voice asked politely over the radio link.

Richard stood up straighter from where he had been leant over Zelenka's shoulder, studying the life signs display of the pier.

"Woolsey here."

"Mr Woolsey. We regret what has happened here, but you have forced our hand. We have many hostages here and we will sacrifice them if necessary. If you meet our demands then I promise that no one will be harmed."

"I want to speak to one of my people," Richard stalled.

"They are all unconscious at present, except for Teyla, which has left us with all of their weaponry at our disposal."

Richard walked away from the pier display and looked across the room to where the others were watching him worriedly. "What are your demands?" He asked.

"We only wish to leave this planet. There is a Jumper hovering out near the pier. They are to pick us up from here, along with a number of hostages, and will take us to the Gate Room. You will dial up the address for New Athos in the Pegasus galaxy, and do not pretend that you do not have the power for that. We will pass quickly through the Gate and you should be left with enough power."

Richard turned towards the darkened Gate below. "As you know the Gate here is shut down to allow the Earth Gate to take precedence. I will have to clear this will my superiors."

"No, Mr Woolsey. You will reactivate the Gate in the city now. I know it is a simple matter that Doctor Zelenka can perform in Doctor's McKay's absence. We will begin to harm your people in five minutes time unless the Jumper collects us from the balcony outside this atrium."

Richard pursed his lips. Zelenka waved him over to the display again and he moved to his side. Zelenka's finger pointed to a lone life sign that was moving swiftly along the corridors towards the atrium in question. It had to be Colonel Sheppard, who they had been informed had broken out of the isolation room five minutes ago. This could present a problem, or a solution?

"Kannan, we will comply with your demands, but you need to give us at least ten minutes to reactivate the Gate."

"That will give the Jumper plenty of time to de-cloak and collect us," the response came back quickly.

"Very well, I will instruct the pilot to collect you from the atrium's balcony."

"You have ten minutes to get the Gate dialled to New Athos," Kanaan stated and the line cut off.

Richard kept his swear words to himself, but only barely, as he turned back to his people. "Doctor Zelenka, better start working on the Gate."

"Really?" Zelenka asked surprised.

"They've got at least twenty of our people over there and little Torren," Richard pointed out. Zelenka nodded and turned to the dark dialling console.

There seemed to be few options at the moment, but at least once they were in the Jumper the majority of the hostages would be free. Something would have to be done between that balcony and the Gate…he really wished Colonel Sheppard was himself.

--------

Teyla felt the vibration of the Jumper as it neared the tower, but she did not turn to look out the window. Tolim had dragged three people out to the balcony, one of them Rodney, and had tied up the rest, all still deeply unconscious. He had taken the time to stun everyone again, which had killed Teyla's hopes of them, especially Ronon, of regaining consciousness any time soon. She had few options with Torren in Kanaan's arms and two weapons almost always focused on her. How far could she push her belief that Kanaan was reluctant to harm her? She wished she had not made that comment about not loving him, because she may have distanced him from her. Perhaps, it was time to try something different.

As Tolim moved back out to the balcony, issuing orders to the Jumper's pilot, she focused on Kanaan. "Will you let me hold my son, Kanaan?" She asked.

Kanaan looked over at her, his expression conflicted for a moment. "I am sorry, Teyla, but I cannot risk you running off with him. He is too important."

"And am I to never see my son again?" She demanded and she didn't even try to hide her fear and barely suppressed panic at the thought.

Kanaan turned towards her, his back to the railings. "You will be coming with us, Teyla."

"To Michael?! No, Kanaan, I will not."

"You want to be with our son, then that is how it will be. In time you will see that I have made the right choice."

"Once Michael has finished experimenting on me?" She asked.

"He will not do that, Teyla."

"Unless he tells you it would be for the great good," she replied and she was pleased to see a touch of worry flicker cross his face. "And what if he changes his mind about Torren? What if he decides that Torren will be the next to be sacrificed? Will you let him do that?"

Kanaan looked away from her, back over the railing, and she saw him frowning before turned back to her. "Michael will never hurt, Torren." His attention went past her through the window.

"You cannot know that for sure, Kanaan, and once Michael has Torren it may be too late."

Kanaan looked down to her again. "Michael will care for our son as much as we do."

"He cannot, Kanaan. He is a monster."

Kanaan frowned at her. "You do not understand."

"I think that I do, Kanaan. I think that you are the one who is confused. I think that Michael's experiments on you have twisted your mind and you are not the man I used to know."

"I am the man I have always been," Kanaan protested.

"Look at yourself," Teyla replied as she gestured up to his face, which had taken on a far too pale hue with bluish veins over his skin.

"I am better than I was, Michael has helped to make me stronger - that is all."

"No, he has made you into his slave. He has turned you partly into what you hate – Wraith."

Kanaan moved towards her slightly. "And what are we? We both carry Wraith genes, and our son – does that make him evil? Do you judge Michael because he is trying to improve himself?"

She frowned at the turn in the conversation. "No, I judge Michael because he is responsible for the death of thousands, Kanaan. And you helped him."

"And what about Doctor Beckett? Do you judge him as you do me? He helped create the virus, the hybrid treatment. He worked to harm others and you do not judge him as you do me!"

"That is different," she protested.

"How, Teyla? Because he was forced? I am as well, for this is the only way to save our people and all the others in our home galaxy that these people from Earth have so easily turned their backs on."

She frowned up at him. "You have seemed happy to be here though. Why? When you do not agree with leaving Pegasus unguarded?" She realised the answer as soon as she asked it. "Because Michael has been taking advantage of our absence. He was responsible for the signal and he knows Atlantis has left Pegasus."

Kanaan nodded at her theory as Tolim walked back into the atrium.

"The hostages are in the Jumper, along with the pilot. We must leave now," Tolim reported.

"I will not leave, Kanaan," Teyla stated.

"Stun her and carry her," Tolim suggested. Teyla frowned at Tolim – she had known him all her life and she was shocked to think how little she had known him. Surely Michael was behind these changes to their personalities, even if they did not agree.

"Teyla, do not make me stun you," Kanaan offered. "Because I will do it."

She considered her options and they were few. She stood up slowly and walked towards Tolim, who watched her carefully over the stunner in his hand. He still had a sidearm, which was tucked in his waistband, and it would take time for him to reach it, yet it would take only a moment for him to fire the stunner at her. If she was stunned unconscious there would be nothing she could do to stop them. Both men watched her carefully. She was almost out of time.

Once they were in the Jumper they would be protected by the ship and she could not be sure that Mr Woolsey and the others would be able to stop them. With all of her team incapacitated she feared that there was no one to help her. As she passed by Kanaan she looked down at her son who was staring up at her worriedly. They would take her son to Michael – she could not allow that. It would be better that she died than her son be handed over to that monster. Maybe there was a way of saving Torren somehow? Below the railings behind Kanaan she could see the glint of metal that told her that the team on the levels below were still nearby in the shadows. She wondered if they were preparing to strike. She had to delay at all costs.

She stopped and turned towards Kanaan, her back to Tolim, and looked down at her son.

"I want to hold Torren then," she argued.

"Once we are through the Gate you can hold him," Kanaan replied, his body tense and his eyes worried. She suspected he knew that she would try something, anything, to stop this. She looked down at Torren, judging how far away she was from Kanaan, how far she had to reach to snatch her son back. It was far from a smart or logical plan, but the urge to free her son from Kanaan was so strong that she had to squeeze her hands into fists to stop herself. Anger, intent and pure, flowed through her veins as she looked up at Kanaan.

"You could hurt him," she argued, trying to keep her words logical, but her voice betrayed her fear, her anger. Kanaan moved back very slightly, turning his body to pull Torren further from her.

"Kanaan, stun her and we will carry her to the Jumper," Tolim protested, his voice betraying his own growing anger.

"Teyla, do not make us force you into that Jumper," Kanaan warned.

She heard Tolim move towards her back, and she hoped he felt worried by her back turned to him. "I'll stun her then," Tolim stated.

"No!" Kanaan protested, his eyes sliding over her shoulder towards Tolim behind her. He looked back at her. "She will cooperate, for our son."

Teyla squeezed her fists tighter, her nails biting into her palms. She was surprised at Kanaan's reaction, but it meant that she had something to work with still. She looked back down at Torren, who was again reaching his little hands towards her, his lower lip quivering. He clearly knew something very wrong was occurring, but he did not understand. He wanted her comfort. She dared not reach for him yet, so she smiled at him as best as she could and reached out with her thoughts, hoping to reassure him somehow. A new vague sensation touched her mind as she did so though, and for a fleeting moment she thought a Wraith was in the city, but she assumed that it was Kanaan and Tolim she sensed. They were becoming more Wraith after all.

"Do you really believe that our son will be safe with Michael?" She asked Kanaan. "A madman surrounded by unstable killers?"

Kanaan's gaze darkened and she feared she may have pushed too much, but she was nearing the end of her own patience. Then, Kanaan's expression softened again. "Then come with us to care for Torren. I promise that I will not let anyone harm him, even Michael."

She studied Kanaan's eyes. "How can I ever trust you again after this?"

Tolim sighed loudly. "This is foolishness, Kanaan. Leave her here!"

"Michael said to take her with us," Kanaan replied calmly, his eyes locked with hers.

"He said 'if possible'. Torren is what is important here. Stun her and bring her, or leave her."

"Go to the Jumper, Teyla," Kanaan ordered her, gesturing with his stunner towards the open exit to the balcony.

She looked back down at Torren. She had no choice now it seemed. She could only hope that someone would stop the Jumper before it went through the Gate. She made sure to give Kanaan a clear view of her distasteful expression before she turned towards the exit.

They walked two steps before all the lights shut off. She did not wait to think, to question, she only reacted, turning and reaching for Torren in Kanaan's arms. He had been turning, expecting an attack from the teams below or from the staircase at the far end. But, nothing moved, not that Teyla noticed for she was too busy squeezing her hands around her son. Kanaan reacted belatedly to her action, but immediately turned, trying to push his own body between her and Torren. However, Teyla had gotten one arm around Torren, trapped between him and Kanaan's middle. She turned with Kanaan and struggled to free her son.

Tolim's hand landed on her back and pulled her roughly away from Kanaan. She could not turn and fight him, not when she still had an arm around Torren. Instead she used her free arm to strike an elbow back at Tolim. However, he ducked aside and batted her arm away with far more force than he normally would have had. She heard herself cry out, but she turned back to Kanaan, pressing closer to limit how much Tolim could attack her and she almost had both of her arms around Torren.

"Just move with her," Tolim shouted as the emergency lighting came to life, adding dark shadows to the atrium. Moonlight mixed with the faint light around them and suddenly Kanaan was pushing himself up against her and forcing her backwards – towards the exit to the balcony. Tolim grabbed at her back, pulling as well. She had to get out of their grasp, hopefully with Torren.

A loud slamming sound echoed around the atrium and the air stilled. Tolim stopped pulling her with him. "The exit is blocked!" He exclaimed.

Teyla tried to pull Torren free again, but Kanaan twisted away pulling her arm free from around their son and he lifted his elbow to block her. The sharp hard edge of his elbow impacted with her cheek and she was knocked away from him forcefully. As she stood back she saw the far end of the atrium was blocked off – the internal lock down doors of Atlantis were down, but there was no alarm. They were trapped in the atrium. Before she could understand how that could help her, there was movement from the railings. She saw, through the moonlight and emergency lighting, two hands appear on the railing and then a form leapt up over the railing, somehow from the levels below.

Tolim and Kanaan reacted immediately both turning and firing at the new dark shape. Teyla stepped back as both their stunners blazed on both sides of her. Blue light lighting up the atrium, but there was no following dull thud of an unconscious body falling to the floor. She blinked her eyes clear from the after affects of the stunners' light and saw John stood by the railing, the stunners clearly having had no affect on him.

She felt a burst of relief, but then she saw the dark colour to his face, and processed the way he stood – still and aggressively. But, she didn't worry about that just yet as she took advantage of the distraction and moved abruptly towards Kanaan again, reaching for her son once more. Kanaan saw her move and turned away from her, using his body to block Torren from her again. Torren began shrieking tearfully, but as she tired to get around Kanaan, Tolim grabbed her from behind again, holding her back. She turned back towards him, but another hand appeared grasping Tolim's forearm, forcing him to cry out in pain. Teyla heard the snap of his arm as John pulled him free of her.

She turned back towards Kanaan, who was now running away down the length of the atrium. She had no idea where he thought he could go but she followed, aware that Tolim and John were fighting behind her.

Kanaan fired his stunner back towards her, wildly over his shoulder, but she was able to duck aside in time away from the poorly aimed shot. Kanaan turned back towards her, running backwards now, Torren screaming in his arm, the stunner pointed towards her. She advanced towards him and moving quickly from one side to the other as he fired at her again.

"Teyla, do not do this!" He shouted at her over his firing, and then he dropped the weapon and in a flash of movement he had a sidearm in his hand instead. He fired at the wall near her and she stopped immediately, the echo of the firearm echoing in her ears. She could see the panic in Kanaan's eyes, that he was feeling pushed into this rash action. She slowly lifted her hands.

"It is over, Kanaan," she said as calmly as she could. Another firearm fired repeatedly behind her and she looked over her shoulder back towards John. She did not have time to worry for him, for with a rush of air and a cry she saw Tolim fall over the railing and she heard the thud of his body hitting the floor two levels below. Tolim had been removed from the fight, but the thought occurred to her now that the threat level may not have changed. She looked back down the dark atrium towards John.

He stood away from the railings and faced her down the length of the atrium. Cold fearful memories assaulted her as she watched him move forward. She remembered in vivid detail how he had been all those years ago when he had been infected with the retrovirus and now, as he moved through the shadows towards her and Kanaan beyond her, she felt that fear again. Fear at remembering how John had been affected before, how aggressive he had been, and that her friend may be lost once again.

She couldn't see enough of his face through the half light, but she could see that his complexion was different and the way the light glinted off his eyes seemed wrong. But, it was the way he moved that made her the most worried – his body was held tall, his arms hanging loosely at his side, his attention fixed forward with no expression on his face. He exuded violent intent and she had no idea if he understood the intricacies of what was happening here. Did he recognise her? Torren?

"John?" She called to him with both concern and warning.

He ignored her as he approached and she could see that all his attention was fixed on Kanaan beyond her.

"Stop, Colonel Sheppard!" Kanaan shouted down the atrium. "Or…or I will shoot her," he added. Teyla would have protested against the threat, hopefully simply a bluff, but she was more concerned that the situation was about to escalate.

"No, Kanaan," she said over her shoulder, her attention remaining on John as he drew even closer. "He may not be able to understand you," she warned Kanaan. "John, he has Torren," she said as calmly as she could. She could hear the adrenaline in her voice.

John stopped, a metre from her, and his eyes moved from Kanaan to her. Nervous hopeful relief slid in beside her fear and concern. She could see the new strange centres to his eyes, again far too familiar from the retrovirus. He blinked at her, the movement slow as if he was thinking slowly – she hoped he wasn't. He gaze moved back to Kanaan again, but he didn't advance forward.

"Torren," John said, his voice oddly smooth and soft. Oddly at such a moment she found herself wondering how he was here. Why wasn't he in the isolation room under Jennifer and Carson's care? But, at least for now it was clear that he was not out of control, having some mental clarity.

"I will do it, Colonel," Kanaan threatened and Teyla almost shouted at him herself, as she turned towards him slowly and carefully, trying to keep John in her peripheral vision.

"It is over, Kanaan," she pointed out.

"No, I can still get to the Gate. No one will risk attacking me while I have Torren." It was clear that Kanaan had been forced into a corner and was purely reacting.

Teyla thought she heard a low rumble of sound from John at that. "Kanaan, they will not let you get to the Gate. Just hand Torren over to me and you will not be harmed in any way."

Kanaan was biting his lower lip and Teyla realised that Torren had stopped crying and instead was staring at them all in strange silence. Teyla saw the gun quivering in Kanaan's hand. She turned herself more fully towards him. "I know you do not wish to harm anyone, Kanaan. That you do not want to shoot me."

She hoped she had read him correctly, that he still had some measure of concern for her wellbeing. "I know there is some of the man I care for inside you," she said carefully, moving a step forward. "You do not want to do this."

Kanaan was breathing hard, the sound loud and she worked to keep her own breathing as calm as possible. John was completely still and silent behind her.

"You can still come with me, Teyla," Kanaan said. "If you come with me freely then I will not be forced to hurt anyone."

"They will not let you get to the Gate and you do not want to hurt anyone, Kanaan," she tried to reason with him. John shifted behind her. Kanaan's eyes left her to follow John, and the gun followed, settling on John.

"I will shoot Colonel Sheppard," he said with worrying conviction. "Unless you come with me, Teyla."

Teyla's emotions took another turn, but she knew how to deal with this threat. She stepped to her right, putting herself between the gun and John. "No, Kanaan," she stated.

She saw Kanaan's face darken and heard his angry intake of breath. "Again, you make your choice clear," he said.

She opened her mouth to argue, but John was suddenly closer to her back. She held her arms out to prevent him from getting around her, to keep herself between him and the gun. He did not try to get around her though, instead he pushed her forward towards Kanaan. She tried to resist, but his strength easily overpowered her attempt to hold him back, so she was forced to step forward. He was using her as a shield against Kanaan – it was a good idea, but it made her fearful again about whether this was really her John.

Kanaan backed up as they approached. "Stop it, Sheppard!" He shouted.

John stopped and she dug her feet against the flat floor beneath her boots as much as she could. John's hands remained on her arms, the heat of them intense through her top, as if he were burning with a fever. His presence was intense behind her and the strange sense of there being a Wraithlike presence nearby was stronger. She realised it was John, not Kanaan as she had previously thought.

"You would use her to protect yourself?" Kanaan shouted angrily at John, the gun vibrating with his anger, but still held high and strong.

"You are holding our son hostage!" She pointed out angrily.

"Run, Kanaan," John said with that deep smooth voice, the words delivered with a mocking quality.

She felt him tremble behind her, felt the shudder through his hands against her upper arms, and she feared that he may be losing whatever mental control he had over himself. Or was he simply pushing Kanaan into making a mistake?

"I will not run from you," Kanaan replied, his male ego clearly rising to John's tone. "I am going to take Teyla and _our_ son back to our home galaxy."

"No," John stated. His hands tightened on her arms.

"We will help to save _our_ people. Our son will help Michael bring in a new age and Teyla will see that," Kanaan shouted back at John, perhaps hoping to provoke him in return.

"No," John repeated. "Michael…will…kill her," he added with deep conviction, but though it was the longest sentence she had heard from him, she could only really focus on the cold shiver that went through her. She remembered the report John had written on his visit to a once possible future, how devoid of precise detail it had been, but he had mentioned that all of the team other than Rodney had been killed – she had been killed by Michael in that future.

Kanaan frowned. "He will not."

"He will," was all John replied, and she could feel the tension through his hands.

"You would say anything to stop me," Kanaan argued.

"He speaks the truth, Kanaan. Colonel Sheppard saw a possible future once, in which Michael killed me following Torren's birth." She watched Kanaan's face and she felt a flush of relief at the worrying look across his face. "You cannot trust Michael."

"I do not believe you," Kanaan replied, but his words were directed over her shoulder at John.

John didn't reply, and she saw Kanaan frown at him angrily.

"Just give Torren to me and we will let you return to Michael," she offered. "You can leave unharmed."

Kanaan looked away, clearly conflicted and as he did so John pushed Teyla forward again. Kanaan saw the move and re-aimed his weapon on them. "Stay back!" He was frowning deeply. "You are lying. No one can know the future for sure. You just want me to leave her here!" The burst of aggressiveness towards John worried her, for Kanaan was clearly projecting his conflict on John, the problem was John was just as unstable right now.

Then the tables turned on her again as John replied "Yes," he said softly and with clear challenge in his voice.

To surprise her even more she felt one of John's hands leave her arm and his fingers ran down over her hair. She froze as he stroked her hair. She found herself recalling a look in his eyes when he had pinned her to the gym wall with a strength and speed that had shocked her. He had looked at her then with an animalistic quality and she knew, without looking, that he would have the same look in his eyes now.

The situation was highly unpredictable on two fronts now and, as John shifted closer to her back, she licked her dry lips and looked towards Kanaan.

--------  
TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Kanaan watched the strange version of Colonel Sheppard stroke his hand over Teyla's hair, his eyes watching the half light glint off her hair. Sheppard looked back at him with clear possessiveness and amusement. It was a taunting look and it made Kanaan bristle. It held in it all the smugness that Kanaan had known Sheppard had always been feeling. Finally Sheppard was revealing his true self - he had wanted to whisper seductive words in Teyla's ear all these years, to touch her.

Though, there was a new quality in Sheppard's eyes now, no doubt as a result of the substance Kanaan had infected into him. If Kanaan had known that the contents of the vial would have done this to Sheppard he wondered if he would have used it. Michael had said it would incapacitate him and would teach them much on the genetic nature of the Ancestors, but Kanaan was confused as to why Sheppard's eyes were more Wraith-like than anything else. He had defeated Tolim quickly, perhaps even killed him, and as Kanaan looked into those strange eyes he saw barely restrained violence beside the taunting appreciation of Teyla. He was using Teyla as a shield, hiding behind her, and sliding his mutating hands over her beautiful hair!

"Stop touching her," Kanaan ordered. A part of him knew he should not allow Sheppard to make him angry, but everything had all gone wrong. The signal being found, Sheppard catching him trying to dispose of the device, and now he had interrupted their departure from Atlantis and changed into something Kanaan didn't understand. And frightened him.

Had Sheppard been right? Would Michael hurt Teyla?

No, he was sure that would not happen – Michael seemed to care for Teyla and Torren. No, Sheppard was simply trying to once again ruin things.

"This is all your fault. If you had stayed away…I will not let you keep her," Kanaan told Sheppard.

Teyla lifted her hands slowly, cautiously. "Kanaan, he is not himself. You can see that."

Her arguments on Sheppard's behalf only made Kanaan more resentful. "No, he is making his intentions _quite_ clear," Kanaan replied.

Sheppard bared his teeth as he smiled, leaning further over Teyla's shoulder and he brushed his nose across her cheek, but his eyes remained on Kanaan. Kanaan could hear the man's in breath, and the pleasurable growl at its end.

Anger and possessiveness flooded Kanaan's thoughts, despite his attempts to control himself. Sheppard brushed his lips and nose against Teyla's cheek again and Kanaan clenched his teeth together with growing aggression.

Then Sheppard slid one of his hands over Teyla's shoulder, pulling her back against him and the dark broken eyes locked with Kanaan's, full of baiting victory and Kanaan had had enough. He pointed the Earth weapon at Sheppard over Teyla's shoulder and fired.

The flash of the weapon's discharge blinded him for a split second, but in that fraction of a moment suddenly Sheppard was on him. A sharp painful blow against his arm sent his weapon spinning out of his grasp. Kanaan cried out at the twist Sheppard put on his arm, and then Teyla was beside him, slipping her hands around Torren held in Kanaan's other arm. This time Kanaan let her take their boy and, now his arms were free, he turned on Sheppard.

A powerful fury, that seemed to have been building for so long, was unleashed and Kanaan threw himself at the other man.

-------

Kanaan flew at him, but John was ready. His entire body felt ready and the anticipation felt as raw as the anger he had felt since he had seen Kanaan turn that gun on Teyla and hold his own son hostage.

Kanaan was a strong and heavy weight as he landed on John, tumbling both of them to the floor. The cold of the floor was a wonderful rush against John's shoulder as he dropped onto his back, and he brought his knees up at the man, pushing at Kanaan's belly and shoving him away.

He would have laughed in delight at the excuse Kanaan had given him, so easily provoked, and John's body was pumped ready to fight. Kanaan stumbled upright and swung out, faster than John had expected, but the new challenge only fuelled the aggression that had his heart pounding in his chest. As he traded blows and kicks with Kanaan, he felt his mind sinking into the blindness of the aggression.

It had been a worrying and familiar feeling that he had been aware of since waking up in the isolation room. Then it had been simmering in the background, turning around the anger of knowing something had been done to him, that Kanaan had betrayed Teyla and the city. Traitor!

Kanaan knocked him to the floor again with his slight advantage of body weight, but John barely registered the blows to his head and arm. The anger was bubbling through his body, his arms and legs screaming to strike out and fight. Traitor! The monster had been sleeping beside Teyla each night! He had turned a gun on her and Torren.

John roared with fury, the sound bubbling up from deep inside his chest and up through his throat. It felt good and he easily swept inside Kanaan's arms and grabbed at the man's throat, squeezing. He felt the shift to his opponent, felt him stiffen and the scent of him changed…fearful…good.

Kanaan rammed his hands at John's face, clawing towards his eyes, and part of John processed that Teyla was shouting something nearby, but he was far beyond being able to understand her. Words were an effort and listening to them right now was impossible for him. He rolled, throwing Kanaan aside off him just before Kanaan's nails got any kind of purchase on John's face and eyes. He tossed Kanaan aside easily and followed, pinning him down to the ground. Kanaan fought back, but there was a struggling quality to it now.

Kanaan tried to crawl away from John, and John suspected he was trying to reach the gun that had fallen nearby. John adjusted his grasp on Kanaan and tugged him back, preventing him from getting away. Kanaan's elbow thrust up and caught John on his jaw, snapping his head back, and for a moment John's head swam. As he blinked he saw Teyla appear, her arms now empty of Torren, and she snatched the gun off the floor. Kanaan snarled and reached towards her. John didn't see what happened, but he heard Teyla's angry cry of pain, and the clutter of the gun falling over the railing.

John's head cleared and he was on his feet towards them as he heard Teyla's fist connect with Kanaan's cheek. The man didn't seem to feel it though and a new flare of anger rushed through John at the thought that Teyla would be defenceless against him.

But Kanaan didn't hit her, instead he turned and abruptly ran away from them.

"Torren!" Teyla shouted as she ran after him back down the atrium again.

John followed, overtaking her in a flash of a second. Ahead he could hear Torren crying from wherever Teyla had put him. John got a fist full of the back of Kanaan's jacket and thrust him off course against the railing. Kanaan stumbled as he fell, catching himself against the railing as Teyla overtook them to get to Torren.

John reached down and pulled Kanaan upright, got his hand around the man's throat and ran him backward away from the railing and shoved him up against the atrium wall. Kanaan grunted with a very satisfying breathless grunt and John squeezed his hand tighter around the man's neck.

Kanaan struggled against him, his strength surprisingly resistant. John caught Kanaan's flying fist in his free hand and rammed it against the wall as well.

"John!" Teyla shouted, but John ignored her. Kanaan gasped loudly, fighting for his breath and John began to squeeze just a little tighter. But, it didn't feel quite right.

He became aware that his heart was thundering in his chest and his arm felt weaker. He looked at his hand around Kanaan's throat, blinking rapidly at the urge to kill that felt so right, yet so very wrong as well. It was all the opening Kanaan had needed.

-------

Teyla paused with indecision as she watched Kanaan gasp out loudly, struggling against John's death grip around his throat. He was pinned up against the wall, one hand pinned out to his side as John appeared to be squeezing his windpipe shut.

"John!" Teyla shouted, but he didn't appear to either hear or understand…or perhaps care. The violence of the frighteningly fast brutal fight had shocked her, and she feared that one of them was going to get killed. She suspected it would be Kanaan, judging by the blank intent violence John was employing against him. "John, do not kill him," she shouted, but again it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

She turned back to her plan, which had been rummaging around the unconscious team members tied up across the atrium, for a radio or weapon she could use. The stunners wouldn't work on either of the men, but if she could find Ronon's… She had no idea how to open up the lock down of the atrium, but if she could get a message to the control room, maybe they could let in assistance. Despite which man won the battle across the room, she would need backup afterwards.

She heard a loud grunt and looked round to see that Kanaan had regained some air and control of the fight. John had backed up, twisted to one side as if he had been kicked or punched, but it didn't last long. There was a growl and the men were clashing again.

There were no radios left on the hostages, Tolim must have removed them all along with their weapons. She turned round, time running out, and spied a pile of shadows near the closed exit to the balcony. She rushed as fast as she could towards the hopeful pile of weaponry, trying to cut out Torren's wails from where she had left him tucked behind the table and chairs in a small space on her jacket. He would be safe there for now, but he was not happy about it. She loathed putting him down, but he would be safer with her having both her arms free.

She reached the pile of weapons and found several of Ronon's knives, one of which she tucked into a back pocket, and then at the base of the pile she saw the faint glow of the unusual stunner. She tore it up and out of the pile, turning back towards the fight.

She rounded the railings towards the men. John shoved Kanaan downwards, forcing his head down towards the small wall supporting the railings, but Kanaan struck out at John's middle, clearly aiming for between his legs. John turned to protect himself and punched down at Kanaan. It provided the opening Teyla needed. She fired at Kanaan.

The alien energy blast engulfed Kanaan, forcing him properly to his knees, but his eyes turned towards her and it was clear he wasn't going to fall immediately unconscious. She was about to fire again when John's fist slammed across Kanaan's cheek with an amazing force. A brief expression of shock crossed Kanaan's face before he dropped to the floor. John reached down and pulled Kanaan up off the floor enough to deliver another sharp punch. This time Kanaan slumped completely flat to the floor, finally knocked out. John stood up over him with a satisfied growl of a noise and what relief Teyla had felt scuttled back into the dark again.

John was breathing fast, the sound loud and aggressive through the dark empty atrium. The adrenaline still pumping through her system almost pushed her to stun him as well, but she held back. "John?" She asked as she began walking backwards away from him, making sure she was between him and the direction in which Torren lay.

John turned abruptly towards her as she spoke. The dark slit eyes focused on her with a predator's sharp focus and suddenly he was advancing towards her. All her nightmares combined as she darted backwards, Ronon's stunner lifting towards him.

"John!" She warned.

-------

"Jumper One, report," Richard tried not to demand too aggressively into his radio's mike. He stood up from leaning over Doctor Zelenka's shoulder, as he had been for the last ten minutes. The Doctor was feverishly trying yet again to release the lockdown on the end of the pier and there was nothing Richard could do at the moment. They had no radio contact with anyone in that atrium at the end of the pier and no way to know what was going on.

"Jumper One, here. Hostages are in the medical team's hands and it looks like they have no injuries other than being stunned. Marines are onboard and I am heading back out to the pier," the pilot reported. For the life of him Richard couldn't remember the man's name, but right now that didn't matter.

"Good, let me know when you get there. We need to know what's going on in there."

"Yes, Sir."

Richard kept the radio active as he turned back towards the large Ancient display that currently showed the end of the pier in question. "Lieutenant McKenzie, status?"

"It sounded like there was one crazy fight going on up there, but it's difficult to tell from down here. I have a very limited view up over the railings above," the Scotsman reported, his voice low over the radio.

Richard resisted the urge to roll his eyes – they were stuck in a position of being unable to do anything it seemed. "Your team are still blocked off from that level?" He asked in the slim chance that in asking some new possibility may present itself.

"Sorry, Sir. All entrances up to that level are blocked off, even the stairwells. The only way up there is up over the railings above us. And I'm not inclined to try that as we'll be a sitting duck as we climb up there."

Richard actually managed a smile at the term, but the tiny respite from frustration and concern only lasted a moment. "Tolim's status?"

"Doc Keller has just taken him off to the Infirmary. Looks like a broken leg, arm and a load of ribs," McKenzie replied, sounding rather pleased with the painful list. "I can still hear Torren crying," he added and the pleasure was long gone from his voice. That Torren was so upset implied Teyla wasn't with him and that worried Richard.

"Keep me apprised, Lieutenant," he instructed McKenzie.

"Aye, Sir."

Richard turned back to Zelenka who was muttering in his own language as he jabbed away at the console. "Doctor?" Richard asked stepping up behind the Czech man. "I need those doors open."

"I do not understand how that area was isolated so completely," the Doctor muttered with frustration. "I can not even find the command to do that!"

"Can't you just release all the doors in that pier?" Richard asked.

"I've tried to open that area, but not even power is getting through to that section of the pier." The Doctor sounded more frustrated than usual and Richard had to wonder if it was the same niggling fear in the back of his mind as there was in Richard's – that for all this time they had missed that signal, who knew what was going on back in Pegasus, who knew what might have followed Atlantis here back to Earth? Hell, right now they didn't even know what was happening at the end of one the city's own piers!

Richard let out a heavy sigh and turned his attention back to the four tiny dots in that far away atrium and not for the first time did he wish there was more he could do for his people.

-------

John's attention dropped to the end of the stunner that pointed towards him and through the loud anger and joyous sense of victory, at having been able to slam his fist into Kanaan's jaw repeatedly, receded enough for him to frown at the familiar weapon pointed at him. Part of him had his arm already tensed to smack the weapon aside, to get it out of his path back to her side, but the realisation hit that she was the one pointing the gun at him. He paused in shock and the red tide of aggression dimmed enough for him to remember that there were no other threats here right now.

He looked up from the dark barrel, past the faint colourful glow of the stunner to her behind it. Then the truth arrived, complete and full of strange details – she was frightened of him. She was afraid he was as he had been before – the Bug. She did not trust him in this state and she was protecting her son. From him.

Despite the overwhelming violent aggression from only a few minutes ago, it shocked him that she would fear him and he didn't like it. The higher part of him wanted to tell her that she was safe with him, but then was she? He was similar to how he had been as the bug. He glanced around towards Kanaan, remembering the joyous satisfaction in beating Kanaan and he felt a flush of revulsion at himself. But, the guy deserved it. The confliction within him was confusing and worried him.

She shifted and he looked back round at her and she flinched. Torren's cries reached a new high pitch of distress, the sound almost physically painful to hear and John saw Teyla's expression tighten at the sound. He felt it himself, and with it the physical tensing that would have had him rushing to the boy's side in any other situation, but he knew that Teyla would see that action as a possible threat. He wanted to say something, but words…they seemed to difficult, too complicated or perhaps too basic. So he opened his hands, holding them out in a universal sign that he meant no harm.

Her eyes dropped down to his hands at the movement and he saw the shift to her face that told him she understood and something about her changed with it. The stunner lowered and he saw her smile tightly at him, but he knew she was still on edge – ready to defend her son and herself at a moment's notice. He kept his eyes on hers, and wondered what she saw.

Torren's cries reached another abrupt screech and Teyla looked away from him to where Torren was hidden behind the chairs. He knew that she trusted him enough to look away from him now, and she began to move towards the chairs, but her body remained angled towards John throughout. She was subtly putting herself between John and the chairs.

She was metres away from John when he decided that it was enough distance and followed her. She had reached the chairs and looked back at him cautiously as she pushed aside one chair and revealed Torren. He was lying on his back, his arms and legs waving as he cried so unhappily. John moved closer, the urge to get closer to the boy growing. He wanted to make the cries stop, to hold the boy and make the fear the boy felt disappear. Teyla's hand dropped onto Torren's belly and she made soothing sounds to comfort him, but she did not pick him up. John moved even closer and she looked back at him. He saw her hand was still tightly clenched around the hilt of Ronon's stunner though it hung at her side. She still did not trust him. The knowledge disturbed him and made him angry – angry at Kanaan, at Michael and at himself.

He stopped a metre from her and he sank down into a crouch, lowering himself to her level and to stop towering over her in a way that might make her uncomfortable. It did not really occur to him to walk away completely and give her space. Kanaan may be unconscious, but he was still in the room with her and Torren, so John wasn't going to move away from her. As she had done with Torren, John had kept himself between her and the unconscious Kanaan, just in case. He glanced back at the fallen man and there was a low rumble of sound that he belatedly realised had been him – he had growled. He blinked at the realisation and looked back round to Teyla, hoping he had not worried her. But, he saw now that she had lost most of her fear of him. He met her eyes, seeing her in a very strange yet familiar way. His vision wasn't quite what it had been as the bug before, but it was close. He knew that the light level was low in the room, but he could still see her clearly. His new night vision portrayed everything in dull dark tones, but the light that he could easily see lighting up her face seemed to shimmer and glitter over her skin.

"Are you alright, John?" She asked softly. The question surprised him as it was her and Torren that he was concerned over. He nodded in reply and slid his eyes over her, seeming to know already that she was unharmed, but there was something…he could see the tear to her sleeve and he could taste the faintest sense of dried blood in the air between them. Since she was moving her arm comfortably enough to rub Torren's tummy he decided it was a superficial wound only. He vividly remembered seeing her fighting Kanaan, trying to wrestle their son out from the man's arms, and John felt the tingling sharp edge of anger again at the memory. He glanced back round at Kanaan, knowing he was still unconscious, but still wanting to visually check anyway.

"Do you have a radio, John?" Teyla asked and he looked back at her to see she had set the stunner aside and was lifting Torren up into her arms. The boy's eyes were wet from his crying, his little lower lip protruding so sorrowfully. John wanted to reach out and help add some comfort, but he feared that it would worry Teyla and that he might frighten the kid as he was. He remembered her question then and shook his head.

She looked away around the atrium as she bounced Torren lightly in her arms. "I could not find a radio before, I believe Tolim put them in the Jumper," she pondered.

A faint shiver of sensation of awareness made John look up from her and he stood up abruptly. Outside there was shift of light and the Jumper appeared up over the balcony outside. Teyla stood up beside him and moved away from the chairs as she waved to the pilot through the windows. The man waved back and several marines appeared beside him. Teyla gestured to her ear and shook her head to indicate that she had no radio. John could feel the pilot and team inside the Jumper turn their attention to him. John felt a shiver of distaste at their presence, though it also was a good thing, wasn't it? Again he felt oddly conflicted about something simple. Those thoughts were quickly set aside as he noticed Teyla moving away from him and turned his attention to following her.

She was approaching the railing and she called over the edge to those below. John had only vaguely noted that it had been McKenzie's team stationed on the floor below as he had raced past them earlier. John didn't bother to look over the railing himself, but he could hear the shuffle of boots below as the team stepped out from the darkness to look up at Teyla.

"Teyla? Are you okay?" McKenzie called up to her.

"We are fine, but we require your assistance. Kanaan is incapacitated for now, but he may regain consciousness at any moment." She glanced ever so slightly over her shoulder towards him. "And Colonel Sheppard will need to return to the Infirmary."

"We'd love to, Teyla, but we can't open the doors. Seems even Zelenka can't get that level out of lockdown," McKenzie reported from below, his voice carrying up easily through the high atrium. "We could send up some ropes and you could climb down," he suggested though it was clear he didn't really like that idea. Neither did John like the idea of Torren being carried down that way.

Teyla turned from the railing towards him, drawing his attention fully to her again. Her eyes assessed him with a single-minded focus that he actually enjoyed. "John, did you cause this lockdown?"

He immediately wanted to deny it, but he instantly knew that he had been responsible. He looked away from her towards the heavy doors blocking the exits at the far end of the atrium and frowned. He remembered wanting to isolate the area, to keep the traitor in where John could get to him. He didn't remember how he had done it, but somehow he had caused this.

"Can you let us out, John?" She asked. He frowned again at that – for some instinct wanted to say 'no' – she and Torren were safe in here with him and he could keep his eye on Kanaan. But, he also knew that was foolish – he had to get help in here. Abruptly the lights flickered on and the doors across the atrium all opened at once. John shut his eyes at the blaze of light over his sensitive eyes.

In a fraction of a second there were others in the atrium with them and John reacted, stepping across to stand between them and Teyla.

"It is alright, John," Teyla said from behind him and her hand touching his arm. The touch brought his more logical mind to bear and he nodded, stepping aside, aware that many of the stunners held ready across the atrium. Around the room teams flooded in, Carson with them, heading straight to the tied up unconscious forms of Kanaan, as well as Ronon and Lorne's teams that hadn't been put in the Jumper before.

So many people pouring into the room made John uneasy, but he made himself step back and to the side, keeping his hands at his sides. McKenzie came striding through the atrium as those around him set about moving hostages and Kanaan. "The atrium is secure, Sir," McKenzie reported into his ear mike, but John felt the man's attention on him. "Yes, Sir, all appears calm."

More movement nearby brought forth Carson, clearly happy that the former hostages were all fine and had turned his attention to John and Teyla. "Are you two alright?" He asked as he arrived. Teyla nodded, but John knew that wasn't entirely true.

He reached out and caught her arm, and around him everyone tensed and weapons raised towards him. He was aware that he had moved too fast, too rashly. Teyla lifted her free hand that wasn't supporting Torren towards the stunners. "It is alright, it is fine," she assured them. John had kept his fingers around her forearm as she had calmed those around them for him, but John was more interested in tilting her arm for Carson to see the torn sleeve and the long deep scratch across her skin. Carson stepped forward and took Teyla's wrist, so John released her arm.

"I am fine," she replied. "It has almost healed already," she told Carson and looked at John as well.

"Aye, I'll clean it up, but you're right it's just a scratch." Again John got the impression the calm words were for his benefit. Carson let go of Teyla's arm and turned to John. "And John, are you alright?" The words were said again with that calm slowness people used with the very sick or confused. John nodded in reply.

"He stopped Tolim and Kanaan," Teyla reported for him.

Carson nodded and John saw the soft sympathetic expression the man sent towards Teyla. John looked at her to see her turning her attention to Torren, speaking to him softly, distracting herself.

John felt the anger rising again, and this time he made himself take a breath and calm himself, glancing round to McKenzie and a few others who still had their attention subtly focused on him. They were doing their job and he was pleased with them, but at the same time he didn't like so many people around him and so many weapons near Torren and Teyla.

"We'll sort that out later," Carson was saying and John returned his attention to the conversation. Across the atrium two marines were struggling to help lift an unconscious Ronon. "Colonel, I think it would be best if we get you back to the Isolation room," the doctor suggested gently.

John glanced at Teyla beside him. She had Torren up high in one arm, her lips brushing against the soft skin of his little forehead. John could see the pain in her eyes, though it was clear that she was trying to hide it, but he could see it. It was like it was singing out around her, and it was full of barely contained shock and pain at what had happened. Once again he remembered seeing her fighting to get to her son, striking out at Kanaan – the father of their son who should have been protecting Torren, no threatening to carry him off to Michael. Michael… That he was alive…it would affect Teyla deeply. She had thought her son and her people safe from that monster, and now to find out that she had been wrong and that they had left the Athosians behind…with Michael alive and kicking.

Teyla glanced up at him, feeling his attention and she gave him that half hearted smile that attempted to hide her pain beneath. "You should go with Carson, John," she was saying. "We have everything under control."

Carson stepped closer, turning to encourage John to walk with him and John realised belatedly that they were worried about him. It was not only in Teyla's eyes alongside her shock, but it was in Carson's and McKenzie's as well. He glanced down at his hands again seeing the blue areas to his skin and nails. He had no idea what he looked like, only that it wasn't like last time. He nodded his agreement and moved forward with Carson. As they headed along the atrium John looked back past his own personal guard of two marines and McKenzie to see Teyla was gathering up Torren's baby bag, still holding the boy close. She looked back towards John again and he saw her restrained pain.

"She'll be alright," Carson suggested from John's left, but John knew that she wouldn't be. Her lover had betrayed her and the city, Michael was alive and her people left unprotected…and he knew she would blame herself for all of it. It was wrong, but she would.

---------  
TBC


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

A deep ache throbbed through the right side of his face as Kanaan slowly woke. He tried to lick his dry lips, but his jaw ached far too much for him to open his mouth enough. Everything was quiet around him and he opened his eyes to a low dark ceiling above him. He shifted his body slowly, becoming aware of more aches and pains, but this time he forced himself to move. He groaned as he finally opened his aching jaw and licked his dry lips. He tasted a touch of blood to his lower lip. He struggled to sit up, his back and legs straining, and as he sat up he saw the wide slats around him. He had only been down to the Ancestor built containment cells once before, but he recognised them immediately. And he was on the inside.

The memories returned and his heart dropped. The painful memory of Teyla pointing the stunner at him as he felt his body cease up from its affects would not be an image he would forget. The look of anger and fear in her eyes had been only superseded by his own sense of shock and betrayal at her actions. He let out a sigh, aware that the back of his ribs ached with the movement. Of course she would react that way, for she was a warrior and thoroughly assimilated by Earth culture. He had been a fool to think he could reason with her. He should have listened to Tolim and simply stunned her and taken her with them to Michael.

A sound across the room caught his attention and he looked through the left side of the cell to see a dark shape leant against the wall. For a moment Kanaan felt a flush of fear – had Colonel Sheppard stayed to finish their fight? And with that another thought occurred to him - once he had been stunned that would have left Teyla alone with what Sheppard had become. Had she stunned Sheppard as well? Had he tried to attack her?

The shadow shifted across the room, stepping into the down lit lighting of the room, and Kanaan felt nervous again. It was Ronon. The tall powerful man had a dark glare on his face, his arms crossed over his chest, in one hand of which he held his energy weapon. Kanaan glanced at the colour at the back end of the weapon, but could not recall if one colour meant stun and the other kill. Though, surely Mr Woolsey would not leave him alone in here with Ronon if his intention was to harm him.

Kanaan swung his legs down off the bench he had been lying on, which possibly accounted for the chill in his back. He carefully stood upright, waiting for the feeling of torn muscles to make themselves known, but it wasn't as bad as he had expected. Maybe the cold bench had helped somewhat.

Ronon moved forward another step, out of the direct light above him and back into half shadows. Kanaan wasn't sure what to say.

"Should I be asking you to spare my life, Ronon?" He asked.

The answer was a deep silence.

"I had my reasons, Ronon," he found himself explaining. "I regret that those choices meant that I had to keep things from you." He had counted Ronon as a friend over the past year, for he had been one of only few in the city who had taken the time to get to know him. Ronon had made being in Atlantis that little bit easier.

Ronon didn't answer, but Kanaan could see him clenching his jaw, and his fist tightened around his stunner.

"I know you do not agree with my choices, Ronon, but I would have thought you of all people could understand how important it is to bring an end to Wraith culling. You lost your entire planet to them," Kanaan moved across the cell closer to him. "Surely you can understand that I will do anything to keep my people, and my son, safe from the same threat?"

"By joining Michael?" Ronon asked sarcastically.

"Yes. He wants to become better than simply a Wraith. He wants to stop the need for culling, to bring peace to our home galaxy, Ronon."

"The only kind of peace Michael wants," Ronon stated as he moved right up close to the other side of the cell's horizontal bars. "Is the peace after everyone's dead. It's peaceful on Sateda, because there's no one left."

"It is that kind of situation that Michael will help us to prevent," Kanaan pushed.

Ronon shook his head. "I really don't care what you think. What I care about," he growled through clenched teeth as he pressed right up to the bars. Kanaan wondered how close he would have to get to trigger the force field, or perhaps Ronon didn't care. "Is what you did to Teyla."

Kanaan felt the chill pass over him. "I would never have hurt Teyla."

"You betrayed her, lied to her. You tricked her into keeping you around, so that you could run off to Michael with your son. You don't deserve to be Torren's father."

Kanaan knew that the words were said purely to hurt him, but try as he might he couldn't ignore the affect of them. "I love my son."

Ronon sneered and shook his head. "You're never going to see your son again. I'll make sure of that."

Kanaan tried to ignore the cold that ran through his body at the prospect of never seeing his son again. "Are you going to kill me, Ronon?"

Ronon glared at him. "Maybe."

Kanaan studied the man's eyes through the bars. "No, you won't kill me, because Teyla would not want you to." He remembered back during the fight with Sheppard when he had been pinned to the wall by his throat, his air leaving his body, Teyla had told Sheppard to stop. It was not in her nature to kill those who were defenceless. Kanaan was sure of Ronon's loyalty to Teyla, almost as if they were bloodkin, and surely he would not go against her like that by killing Kanaan.

"Just give me a reason to, Kanaan," Ronon stated.

That was the loophole though. Ronon would not go against Teyla's wishes, but if he had the right excuse…would he kill him? Kanaan looked into the taller man's eyes and saw nothing there but a clear promise. And anger. It was a potent combination that made Kanaan feel small and threatened on a basic instinctive level.

Ronon must have seen what he wanted to in Kanaan's face, for he turned away and moved to the exit.

"Ronon?" He called out to the man's back. "Will you give her a message for me?" Ronon kept walking. "Tell her that I would never have hurt her or Torren." The door opened ahead of Ronon and he disappeared from view, without a single glance back.

A guard's arm appeared across the doorway, triggering the door to close. It slid shut leaving Kanaan entirely alone, the room black outside his cell.

--------

Carson rubbed his eyes, desperately trying to focus his attention on the small screens before him. He reached for the mug of coffee by his laptop and sipped at the brew, only to discover that it was a lot colder than he had expected. He winced as he swallowed down the mouthful he had taken and set the mug aside. He should cut down on caffeine anyway. Though, tonight may not be the most ideal time to start.

He glanced up from the screens through the glass observation window to where John sat on the side of the bed. John sat still, as he had done through all the tests and scans, and though he had been the most ideal of patients in that regard, it was so unlike John. He sat now in that same position, his attention focused ahead. Focused through the opposite glass wall through which the observation room could be glimpsed and inside there Carson could see Teyla sat with her attention focused down at Torren in a carry cot.

She was sat forward, her chin in her hand and it pained Carson to see the look of strain to her expression. She had arrived to visit John a short time ago, waiting as the nurse finished the latest readings and checks. The nurse was currently at John's side taking another set of photos of his arms, documenting the development of Michael's serum. Carson already knew the pictures would be the same as those taken an hour ago. It appeared that the physical changes of the serum had reached a peak, and the relatively small areas of blue skin had stopping growing or darkening, but at the same time they hadn't decreased either.

"How is he, Doctor?" Mr Woolsey's voice shocked Carson out of his pondering and he was glad he hadn't been holding the coffee mug. He was extra pleased he hadn't finished the caffeine if he was already this jumpy.

"Mr Woolsey," he turned to the man as he entered to pause by his side, looking through the glass to where John sat. "He appears well enough. The changes to his body seem to have stopped and the catalysing agent is almost entirely gone from his system."

"Do I hear a but coming," Woolsey asked as he turned to Carson.

Carson tried not to show the frustration and annoyance at the situation, but it was late and it had been a stressful day. This was all hitting a little close to home for him and despite finding those responsible and stopping them, Carson couldn't shake the feeling of dread. Michael still lived. He cleared his throat and considered having some of the cold coffee.

"From what we can see the genes that were activated are not shutting down in the absence of the agent. It's possible that there was more to the agent that we assumed, it may be that once active these genes may remain so."

"But, you found the original serum Kanaan injected the Colonel with, that doesn't help you?" Woolsey pressed.

"Aye, it helps us, but there wasn't that much left in the syringe. We were able to analyse it, and we should be able to replicate some more to use for testing, but to be honest this is an entirely new level of genetic research for us. Michael's obviously been developing his research since I was rescued. I'm hopeful though that once we come to understand the serum and how it affects the genetic structure that we will be able to help the Colonel."

"How long will that take?"

Carson hated questions like that, because there was no real safe answer. "We're already testing some gene therapies on some cell samples taken from the Colonel. I'm hopeful that we can do something for him soon." He knew it was an unhelpful answer, but it was the truth.

"Can't you treat him like you did the last time?" Woolsey asked.

"This isn't like the retrovirus, these are his own genes and we can't simply replace them with inactive ones. Though, there are several treatments we can try. It's also entirely possible that given time his body might return to normal, if the genes return to their dormant state by themselves."

Mr Woolsey nodded. "Thank you, Doctor. Could you have a report drawn up for tomorrow morning? I need to update the SGC on the Colonel's status."

"Of course. How did they take the news about Michael?" Carson asked.

"As well as you can imagine. It's sparked off something of a disagreement among the ranks as best as I can tell. Some understand that we will need to return to Pegasus to find Michael and hope that he hasn't been up to anything too heinous whilst we've been gone. Others feel that Earth's position may have been compromised and that Atlantis is needed to protect Earth more than ever."

Carson nodded as he looked down at the screens of data before him. Michael may be a monster, but he was highly intelligent and if Kanaan was right then there were copies of Michael out there as well. Maybe that explained the advance in the genetic skills – how much could one person achieve when there were several versions of him working together? Once again Carson faced the disturbing thought as to whether there may be other versions of himself out there as well. Was there another Carson still enslaved by Michael, being forced to help develop this evil work?

"For now at least we have some intel on Michael," Woolsey continued.

"How is Tolim?" Carson asked. He had been wholly focused on John for the past few hours.

"He's stable and should make a full recovery, though perhaps it will be best to keep the Colonel down here and away from the Infirmary." Carson nodded his agreement. "And Kanaan's awake already. We should begin the interrogation tomorrow."

Carson could still hardly believe that the calm gentle seeming Kanaan had turned out to be a traitor. At first Carson had feared that his own treatments to return Kanaan and the other Athosians to their true selves following Michael's hybrid treatments had been responsible, but now it appeared that Kanaan had been in league with Michael even before the Athosians had been taken. Teyla had not said anything more than that, but it was clear to Carson that surely that knowledge would have been very hard for Teyla to hear. He looked through the isolation room to Teyla again. He wished he could do something for her, but what could he do other than be a friend for her. In many ways he felt he had already done far too much when it came to the subject of her people.

--------

Torren smiled up at her from his carry cot and she smiled down at him, tickling one of his feet. He grinned wider, innocent and ignorant of how his life had changed. He had barely grumbled after his ordeal, seeming more interested in his dinner, but then he was too young to understand what had happened. All he had understood was that those he loved had been upset and that he had been left alone for a short time. Had it felt like a short time to him? Maybe a few minutes alone had felt shockingly long to him. She hated to think he may have feared that no one would pick him up again, that he had been traumatised in any way, but he only smiled up at her now.

Surely he would wonder where his father had gone. Kanaan had spent almost more hours with Torren than her, so surely he would miss his father's presence? At least Torren was young and would not truly feel the impact of the betrayal. But, one day she would have to tell him when he was older. She would have to explain to Torren about Michael and about how his father had tried to steal him. She was glad that there would be many years until that day arrived – she had time to plan how to explain it all. For now he was safe and happy. She wished she could feel that way – that she could so simply move forward without lingering on the enormity of all that had been revealed. The last two years felt like they had all been a lie.

She did not doubt that Kanaan cared for her though, and that she had cared for him deeply, but his feelings were twisted with his fears for the future and perhaps distorted as a result of Michael's experiments on him. She liked to think that this Kanaan was not the same man as the one she had grown up with and had initially shared a relationship with before Michael, but she had no way to ever really know. It was all broken and it would never be fixed. She sighed as she waved one of Torren's favourite toys for him. He took it from her hand, the bright colours of the plastic making him smile and he waved it to produce the jingling noise he loved. He giggled brightly.

The shock was still so fresh, almost verging on denial at times – that Kanaan was not what she had thought he was. He had threatened people, her friends, even her, and had attacked John, initially with Michael's serum. Yesterday she would never have thought the Kanaan she thought she knew could have been capable of such acts. He may have insisted that he was pushed into today's rash actions, but she was surrounded everyday by people who survived and shined in the stress of difficult times. They never used that excuse. She valued the strength of character they displayed in those times. Kanaan had revealed his own character today and as much as she wished his actions were due to Michael's twisting, it did not change the fact that Kanaan had been twisted.

She looked up the window into the isolation room. The nurse was standing in front of the bed, blocking her view of her John. She prayed that what had happened to John was reversible, that he could become himself again. She hated to think that her mistake in Kanaan would affect John in the long term. She dropped her eyes back onto her smiling son. She had made so many mistakes and it appeared the consequences were affecting others as much as herself. Not only were her life and Torren's forever changed, but John's as well and in a far more dramatic way. She found herself recalling that battle between John and Kanaan – the aggression and violence between them and not for the first time lately did she wish she had chosen differently.

She felt as if there were eyes on her, but she did not look up, for over the past hours she had met the looks of many and in all their eyes she had seen their well meaning pity and support. Though she appreciated their concern it did not help her hold back the sadness. And besides John was the one who needed attention and support right now.

_Teyla_

The call arrived in her thoughts and for a moment she froze fearing at the origin, until she recognised the voice behind the word, or at least the voice she had given the call. She looked up from Torren to meet John's altered eyes through the glass. The nurse had gone, leaving him alone in that small see-through room. He was sat on the edge of the bed, where he had remained for some time, and his attention was focused on her with a heavy intensity. She saw his eyebrows shift as if he had been surprised by her sudden attention. She wondered if she had imagined the voice, but she could not deny the similarity to earlier when he had somehow told her that it had been Kanaan behind his attack.

He frowned at her and she was aware she was doing the same. She got up from her seat and moved across the tiny distance to the glass wall between them. "John?" She asked, unsure why she would ask it out loud, but perhaps he could recognise his name on her lips through the glass.

She felt that slight sensation inside that was so similar to what it felt to be near a Wraith, but not quite. She had forgotten that she had sensed this from John before, but now it returned again. His eyes were locked onto her and a deep crease appeared in his forehead as he frowned heavily.

_Teyla?_

This time she was sure that she heard it and the question to it as well. She turned from the glass and picked up Torren's carry cot. She swiftly exited the observation room and past the two relaxed guards near the main exit. They nodded to her as she passed heading towards the entrance to the isolation room. The door stood open, as it had all evening now, and she saw John watching her from inside, but she moved on further into the small lab behind the other glass wall. Carson and the two nurses looked up as she entered.

"Carson, could you watch Torren for me for a moment?" She asked.

"Of course, luv," he replied and she saw the touch of sympathy in his eyes, which only deepened as he took the cot from her. "Wow, you are getting heavy, little man," he said down to Torren who smiled up at him. "You're going to grow too big for this cot pretty soon."

Teyla moved away to the door through which John was sat in the same position, his head turned towards her as she entered. She smiled as she moved towards him, her eyes dropping only momentarily to the blue skin of his arms and throat. His changes had seemed darker in the half light of the atrium, but in the pure light of the isolation room the areas of blue seemed less but just as starling due to the brightness of the colour. She lifted her eyes to his as she neared him, and she noticed that the Wraith-like shape to his pupils were narrower in here, most likely due to the bright overhead lights. It meant that there were more of his natural green colour to his eyes, but the narrow strip of darkness shifted wider as she neared.

She opened her senses, as she would do to communicate with a Wraith, or sometimes with Torren. She had found that she could communicate on a basic level with her son sometimes, such as to calm him or distract him from something that upset him. It usually took a lot of focus and it did not always work, but then Torren was young and his mind undeveloped as yet. She looked forward to seeing how much they would be able to communicate in the future.

She imagined in her mind a space in which she could communicate safely with another, though before that space had been invaded by Wraith, most notably the Queen who had almost brought an end to Torren before he had even been born. She gathered her wandering thoughts, her emotions were very much on the surface this evening and not for the first time did she feel the need to retreat away where she could express her feelings alone.

She formed in her mind John's name and sent it to him in the same way as she practiced with Torren, but as she watched John she saw no indication that he had heard her. She tried again, but again there was nothing.

"Try again, John," she suggested.

His attention focused intensely on her again and the words arrived.

_This is not your fault_

She was surprised more at the content of what he had chosen to say to her than that he had been able to communicate with her. "I heard you," she reported.

"Teyla?" Carson called gently from the doorway and she and John looked round at him. "Is everything alright?" She wondered how long she and John had been staring at each other trying this out.

She smiled in return and gestured to John. "I can hear him."

Carson's look of curious concern morphed quickly into interest. "Like before?" He asked as he moved into the isolation with them.

"Not as dramatically as before," she reported, since that first time she had been literally almost knocked from her feet. "But, he seems unable to hear thoughts I send him as I can with Wraith."

"Really? Can you hear all the Colonel's thoughts?"

"Just what he wants to say to me," she replied, assuming that John would be thinking considerably more than the short bursts he had sent her. Though, he had been saying very little so far.

"I wonder if this has something to do with you not speaking very much," Carson considered, clearly thinking along the same lines. "Are you finding it difficult to talk?"

_Thinking seems easier_

"He says that it is easier to think than speak," she reported.

"That's new for you then," Carson joked at John.

John's face, blank as it seemed to be, shifted slightly and she thought she saw a faint touch of an amused glare directed towards the Doctor.

"Is there anything he wants to tell us? Any details we haven't picked up on before?" Carson pushed. As she looked back to John she realised that she had assumed the role of a translator. Though, if it could help John she was more than willing, and she had never experienced telepathy so easily before. John's eyes locked with hers.

_Tell him I'm hungry_

She chuckled at the sudden message. "He's says that he is hungry."

Carson's look turned, instead of amused as she was, to concern. "For food, right?" He asked cautiously.

She glanced back at John, only just realising Carson's point. She was sure she had felt the subtle sense of amusement to John's previous thought, but she should be sure. John had not shown any indication of the Wraith or Iratus need to feed the last time, but again they should be sure. But John answered immediately with a nod at Carson and then he looked back at her.

_They're serving roast potatoes tonight_

"How do you know that?" She asked him. He had not been outside this room for the last three hours or so. His only answer was a light frown and then a shrug.

"What?" Carson asked.

"He says they are serving roast potatoes up in the mess hall," she told him.

"Really? I love roast tatties," Carson replied with eagerness of his own. "I'll get them to send down some dinner for us," Carson turned and moved to the exit.

She watched him stop outside the doorway as he placed the dinner order, and then there was a soft touch against her hand and she looked round at John. His eyes met her very directly, more directly than one normally did with another, but the intensity of the stare did not feel worrying. Perhaps it was the strange shape to his eyes now, and as compared to his direct stare from the time of the retrovirus, this time there was a clear lucid intelligence in his eyes.

_I'm sorry_

"For what?" She asked surprised.

_For scaring you before_

"You do not need to apologise, John," she told him. "You saved both Torren and me." She broke her eyes away from his far too aware attention. John's hand touched her arm again drawing her attention back to him. It was only when she looked up at his eyes that she heard him again.

_Don't blame yourself_

She was surprised by the accuracy of his comment, and also that he would so directly 'say' it. The comment brought forth a swell of emotions that she had been managing to handle up until now. She quickly tried to stamp them down. "I should have known."

He shook his head. She appreciated his opinion, but he was wrong. She decided to change the line of this conversation. "Michael is still out there," she said.

His eyes narrowed at her before he nodded.

"He may have my people, John," she said and halfway through the sentence the emotion broke free, shaking her voice and she looked away blinking against the abrupt fearful tears. She gathered herself through the silence of the small room and finally looked back up to him. His eyes were on her, dark and dangerous as they had been in the atrium.

_We will find him_ He stated each word clearly in her mind.

She nodded, though doubt clouded her thoughts and she found herself also fearing that perhaps John would not be allowed to help. What if he was unable to be returned to himself? No, she could not allow herself to think that way. Carson would find a way to help him. She nodded again and once again felt the touch of John's hand, but this time it was against her hand. She looked down to his touch with surprise, and she clasped his hand with her own. All the support that the others had offered to her over the past few hours had been appreciated, but unwanted. Now, she found she wanted his support, and his simple touch meant more to her than a hundred offers of support. She was blinking back tears as Carson re-entered the isolation room.

She quickly wiped at her eyes with her free hand, trying to compose herself a little. Carson's look of support now was not as unwelcome as before. "They've got honey roast parsnips as well," he told John. "I've ordered some food for you and if you want some Teyla?" He asked.

"I should really go and put Torren to bed," she replied. The desire for some space and to let out her feelings was even stronger now. John's fingers tightened around her hand a little more. She looked at him.

_We'll stop him_

She nodded and tightened her hand in his in reply. She felt Carson's question and looked back at the kind doctor. "It seems easier to hear him if I am looking directly at him," she offered her observation, also serving to subtly distract her friend away from the clear tears in her eyes.

"Interesting," Carson considered. "Perhaps tomorrow we could do some scans?"

"I would be happy to help in any way I can," she replied honestly.

"Well, since I'm not psychic," Carson told John. "You'll have to use this," he held up a small whiteboard and pen. "I should have thought of it sooner. The areas of the brain that produce speech are very different from those that you use to write."

John reached for the board with his free hand and Teyla gently pulled her hand from his other. His eyes moved to her as he took the pen from Carson. He placed the items down on his lap, his attention focused entirely on her. There was a long pause, that she felt more through the lack of words he sent her than in the physical stillness of him.

_Sorry about Kanaan_

She nodded her thanks. "I know. I will see you early tomorrow morning," she offered now even more eager to leave here to have some emotional space. "I hope you sleep well." John nodded, his alien eyes seeing far too much in her.

She moved to leave and Carson's hand fell on her arm squeezing briefly. She smiled up at her friend. "You should get some sleep as well, Carson," she said softly.

"I will, I promise," he replied.

She doubted him, but nodded and moved to leave the isolation room, looking back briefly to see John watching her, but no words arrived from him. She smiled at him and left the room to collect Torren from the nurses in the next room. As she thanked them she looked through the glass wall to see that John was writing on the whiteboard for Carson. That pleased her because she did not wish to leave him without someway to communicate more fully than one word answers.

She nodded to the guards as she passed them and stepped out into the empty corridor outside the isolation lab. The doors slid shut behind her and she was left alone in the corridor with her quietly snoozing son.

--------

The hallways were dark and empty as he strode through them. The subtle pressure of the weight of the mountain above the hallway's ceiling seemed to press down on his head and shoulders. He drew in the damp scent of the earth behind the living walls and, not for the first time, he wished that he was elsewhere.

The doors slid open ahead of him. "Status of the signal?" He demanded.

"It has still not returned," was the reply.

"It could be the solar radiation again," another suggested from his right.

"The radiation readings are not that high."

"The signal is so weak that any number of interferences between both points can interfere."

He stopped before the main console set before the large wavering screen above them. "Not for this long before. It has been discovered," he concluded.

"They may have deactivated the signal before it was discovered," was the standard argumentative reply.

He turned to face the argument delivered from a reflection of his own face. "Either way it means that the signal has been discovered."

"They may be able to track it back here," the third suggested.

"I doubt that they will be able to do that."

"You forget they have the skills of Doctors McKay and Beckett at their disposal," he pointed out as he turned back to the screen. "We need to make ready to execute the plan."

"He is far from ready," the argument continued as the other clone stepped to his side.

"He has been ready for a very long time - he only seeks perfection as part of his madness. There is no time for that indulgence now."

"It is important that all the factors are taken into account. It has yet to be tested on a planet."

He turned from the screen to smile at his double. "Then I suggest we test it – on the planet they will likely return to."

His reflection smiled, and once again they were in complete agreement.

"I will let him know."

--------  
TBC


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

It was the dead of night yet Richard remained sat at his desk, pouring over the details of his official report to be delivered in the morning. Though all those in power would no doubt already have been made aware of the details that had been discovered today, he still knew the reports had to be as thorough as possible. He had all but a few last reports to gather and then tomorrow the fate of Atlantis may very well be decided…finally.

He sat back from the screen and pulled his glasses from his face to rub his eyes. They seemed to be burning into his head, but then it had been a terribly long day. Though truthfully it had only been the afternoon that had been the worse of it. The hostage situation had been short lived, but it had felt like it had lasted all day and the consequences of it had changed everything.

He pushed his glasses back onto his nose and set his elbow on one arm of his chair. He looked out through the floor to ceiling glass that looked out over the Gate room below. The lighting was subdued, presenting the suggestion that it was late, if the darkness outside the tower was not clear enough. The darkness called to him to go to bed and it was a good idea, but he doubted that he would be able to sleep in the state he was in.

Once again he began to play through what he would say tomorrow to all the officials. Everything was in the reports, both from himself and the others in the city who had been involved. A traitor, two traitors, had been found in their midst and though they had been stopped it did not lessen the impact. For months there had been a tiny signal pulsing out from Atlantis and it was likely that at the end of that signal Michael had been watching. Did that mean that he was on his way to Earth? Had the signal been strong enough to pinpoint Earth? And Michael – what had he been doing back in Pegasus, clearly aware that Atlantis had left its stars? And if Kanaan and Tolim were to be believed then there wasn't just one Michael – there were clones.

It had been nice being back on Earth. These last months had seemed peaceful compared to the last year in Pegasus, but it had been a lie. They had left a terrible enemy behind them and had left those of that galaxy without support against that threat.

Then there was the point that they would need a lot of energy to get back to Pegasus if they did return. The wormhole drive might work again, but that would put them right back in the same position – cut off from Earth without the intergalactic bridge and with barely any power. Was it right of Richard to want to go back anyway?

He sighed again and pulled his gaze away from the high ceilings of the Gate room and back down to the laptop in front of him. And Colonel Sheppard…his ultimate fate was unclear - the mutations of the past and Michael's manipulations had turned him into something new. Woolsey understood enough about the basics of genetics to know that what had been done to the man was an alteration on a deep basic level and may not be possible to undo.

Though it had appeared that the treatments for those who had been turned into Hybrids had seemed successful, they now had to question whether it had worked properly. Had Kanaan and Tolim been altered in a way that body scans and the eye could not distinguish? Had they not returned to themselves despite the best complete treatments of Doctor Beckett? Or had they, as Teyla had suggested, possibly been involved with Michael before the treatments? Or had Michael done something to them even before that? It was far too complicated and worrying, and he was never going to find any answers sitting up tonight, but it did not feel right to go to bed. His people were suffering in a variety of ways and no doubt everyone in the city tonight would be seeing the world a little differently, some more than others.

For now there was only one thing he had control of and that was his own report and planning for the meetings tomorrow. So, he sat forward again and found the last paragraph he had been reading.

---------

The device had been broken into tiny little pieces, the disassembly employed by Kanaan no doubt involving a hammer. Rodney reached for the liquid cement and touched a tiny amount to the edge of one piece and carefully, slowly, joined it up with another tiny piece of metal. The casing didn't matter, but the wires and other pieces of strange technology attached to it were important. Slowly and carefully he had been able to fit some pieces together and had been able to identify some of the broken smaller components that had been attached to those pieces. It was a complicated little twisted 3D jigsaw puzzle, but he had always been good at what was difficult.

"You still up?" Ronon's deep voice echoed around the quiet lab.

Rodney held the tiny pieces together before he looked up at his team mate, the magnifier attached to his headband making half of Ronon appear massive and blurry.

"No, I do this kind of thing when I'm asleep," Rodney muttered sarcastically, but he didn't really have the energy to make it sell.

Ronon moved forward into the room and Rodney returned his attention to his bizarre little jigsaw.

"How's it coming?" Ronon asked as he reached the other side of the desk across from Rodney.

"Oh, you know…really slowly," Rodney replied honestly. He set the cemented pieces down carefully and they remained together. "I think I'm getting somewhere, but even then it might not mean I can get the thing working enough for me to be able to analyse what the signal was."

"I thought you had the signal recorded from when it was still broadcasting?" Ronon sounded tired, which was unusual for him and Rodney suspected it was more from an emotional tiredness…if Ronon was anything like him. Then again they weren't all that similar.

"We do, but it was so mixed in with the other normal signals of Atlantis. This was brilliantly done," he admitted gesturing down to the pieces before him. "It was even designed not to look Wraith and possibly to break apart easily. If you didn't know what this was most people would think these were pieces of a broken stereo or something."

Ronon's hands rested down on the other side of the table as he peered forward down at the pieces recovered from Kanaan's quarters. Thank God the man hadn't had time to dispose of it all properly.

"You sure Michael made it?" Ronon asked.

"Well, I hope so otherwise we've got two big bad enemies out there. Yes, I'm fairly sure some of these smaller components here," he picked up a tool and turned over one piece of tiny circuitry. "See this, this part here is organic, very Wraith-like. It's very clever." He set the tool down. "But, then that's Michael isn't it? Clever. Fooled us pretty well," Rodney muttered, the late hour and the stress of the day really making themselves felt.

Ronon dragged a stool forward and sat down opposite, setting his forearms along the metal desk. A grumpy growl was his answer.

"You seen Sheppard?" Rodney asked. He had been trying not to worry about John all the time he had been working tonight. Carson had assured him that Sheppard seemed relaxed enough and they had everything they needed to find a cure for him.

"Yeah, I dropped in on the way here," Ronon replied.

"How'd he look?"

"Same, Carson says what Michael did to him may disappear again, or settle or something like that," Ronon half shrugged, and it was clear to Rodney that the guy was feeling frustrated. "It'll take time whatever happens," Ronon added with clear disgust.

"He seems okay though," Rodney offered. "You know apart from the insults he wrote on that whiteboard." He had actually been pleased to see that clear Sheppard-ism.

"Carson says you were pestering him," Ronon replied with a slight smile.

Rodney frowned at the reminder of the failure in his research. "I have no idea how he got that specific section of the pier locked down and completely cut off from Operations."

"What did he say?" Ronon asked, though Rodney suspected he already knew.

"Says he doesn't know how he did it," Rodney muttered. "Apparently he's been acting all Ancienty as well as his bug power in beating up Kanaan." He let out a frustrated sigh – he and Ronon had missed all the action having been stunned through it all.

"He's quiet," Ronon added.

"More like you, you mean?" Rodney teased, but again his heart wasn't really in it. "He certainly expressed himself clearly on that whiteboard."

"You're lucky he didn't do to you what he did to Tolim," Ronon replied, some amusement in his voice again.

Rodney nodded at that. When he had woken up in the Infirmary he had seen Tolim. They had been setting the man's fractures at the time and clearly the morphine hadn't kicked in yet.

"You seen Teyla?" He asked next, his eyes dropping to the pieces of the device that Kanaan had hidden in their quarters.

"Not since earlier. Said she wanted to be alone," Ronon added. And it was like Ronon to take her at her word with that. Rodney wasn't sure if he should visit her, say something. He was pretty sure that Sheppard would have come up with something, even if it was a weak excuse to visit to take Torren off her hands for awhile. But, Sheppard had his own problems. And besides it was very late.

"Poor little Torren," Rodney uttered quietly as he looked at the broken pieces in front of him.

"He's better off without Kanaan," Ronon stated, his anger clear. Rodney nodded his agreement.

They lapsed into silence, the silent dark corridors outside the open lab doorway only made the late hour all the more obvious. Early tomorrow Rodney had to present his findings to Woolsey, and as yet he didn't have much to offer. If he could just get these pieces back together without falling asleep, then maybe he could find out something…anything to tell them how much mess they really were in. The previous petty details of the research teams in the city didn't seem so difficult now. He would take on all the research teams the world wanted if it would mean he could make what happened today to…not have happened. But, he couldn't. These past months on Earth seemed rather like a holiday now, a vacation from the stress and strains of how life had been in the Pegasus galaxy. Those darker days were back though – and they had brought all new terrifying friends with them.

"Has Kanaan or Tolim said anymore?" He asked hopefully.

"Woolsey wants to leave them for tonight, start interrogating them tomorrow," Ronon said the word with great distaste. Rodney wondered what Ronon's version of an interrogation would be if he was left completely alone with Kanaan.

"Well, maybe they'll tell us something," he suggested weakly.

"Don't count on it," Ronon replied grimly. "Besides they probably don't know what Michael's really up to." The idea only depressed Rodney further. He looked back to the metal pieces before him and with renewed determination he reached for them. They needed to find out what that signal was and maybe track it back to Michael. And perhaps find something that would help Sheppard. Rodney just needed to get this device back together.

He worked silently, finding another small piece and fitting it carefully against another, only to find a separate piece needed to sit between them. Ronon shifted in his seat, reminding Rodney of his presence and he glanced up at the man, but Ronon didn't look like he was going anywhere. Normally Rodney hated people proverbially looking over his shoulder as he worked, but Ronon wasn't like that here. He was simply sitting with him, and Rodney felt a little more hopeful with his friend's presence.

--------

The single Earthly moon glowed down through the white clouds high outside the window. Teyla shifted in her seat, the blanket wrapped tightly around her where she sat perched on a chair looking out of the window to the alien world outside.

A short distance away she could hear Torren's heavy sleeping breaths as he dreamed. She glanced back round to see his twitching slightly in his sleep, but he stilled again, his breathing softening almost to silence. She looked from his sleeping face to the boxes at the far side of the room. She had barely managed to wait till Torren had fallen asleep before she had begun to gather up everything that was Kanaan's from around the room. Even gifts from him had been all but thrown into the boxes, until her eyes full of unshed tears, she had removed every trace of the man that she could and she had shut the boxes tightly. They sat now, far from her, right by the door and she was tempted to place them out in the corridor out of her sight. The darkness of her room cast the boxes into deep shadow and she pulled her eyes from the irony of it to look back out at Earth's single moon.

It was her who had been living in the dark – the reality around her all but ignored. All these months she had known something had been wrong. Her dreams had even contained images of Michael and had even made her feel slightly uneasy of Kanaan at times. How foolish she had been to ignore her intuition, so precisely crying out for attention it had been. By ignoring those instincts she had placed herself in this situation – and those around her.

Her thoughts returned to John, shut down in that isolation area, his future unclear. The clarity of his communication with her gave her hope, but it had also made her feel all the more uncomfortable. He had been altered and Kanaan had been responsible, and she realised that she therefore felt responsible herself. Her actions in choosing Kanaan and ignoring her own intuition had changed so many things. If she had not welcomed Kanaan back into her life, and her arms, after his return from Michael…but she had not known then. She had wanted the family he had represented. The chance for things to return to how they had before, before her people had been taken, before she had felt so responsible and lost, before Michael. Now, she was back in that same place again, only it felt even worse.

She looked from the moon to the faint sparkling of stars through the breaks in the cloud cover. She knew there was no way for her to see her lost home galaxy from here, that she could not see her people's world, but she still looked up at the stars in hope. Where were her people? Were they safe? Or was there a new familiar shadow bearing down upon them, or had it perhaps already crushed them?

The pain of betrayal, of broken safety and fears made it feel as if her heart were breaking in her chest.

A tear slipped down her cheek and she let it roll free.

--------

Several floors below, John looked up towards the ceiling of the isolation room and felt the ache deepen in his chest. He had no clear comprehension of how he knew that she was sat in pain, but he did. It could be that he knew her well enough to know how she might react, but this feeling inside him…

He looked away from the ceiling, turning to look over his shoulder through the glass wall into the lab beyond. Carson had fallen asleep, slumped onto the desk, his cheek resting on his arm. He felt responsible. That knowledge angered John, but he also respected Carson's need to exorcise demons…John understood all about that.

He looked away from the sleeping scientist to the open doorway from the small isolation room. Outside there were two guards, both bored and playing cards quietly by the main exit of the isolation area. It wouldn't take much for John to get out of here. He knew they wouldn't be able to stop him without getting violent and that they would be more inclined to step aside. Maybe they would follow him all the way up to her quarters.

He looked away from the temptation of the open doorway. Though the drive to leave was strong, and the overwhelming desire to go see Teyla was making his skin itch, he knew that he had to stay. The two parts of him warred inside. The tiny space of the isolation room was getting to him, but at the same time he had sat here barely moving for what had obviously been hours. Sitting and simply thinking felt comfortable and the peace of stillness was satisfying in a strange new way. Maybe this was how meditation was supposed to feel.

Yet, the walls around him also felt limiting and a part of him itched to be away. He wanted to feel space around him, to feel free. The subtle restraint of the guards' presence was enough to annoy that part of him. That and the knowledge that she was sitting alone and in pain. He wanted to be close to her, to help her. To support and at the same time to push her to break out of her tight control. It was her normal nature to be truthful, but not always with herself. She would blame herself and feel the swell of aggression that she had before when her people had been taken. He understood that fierce drive to make your enemy pay. He had enjoyed stopping Kanaan.

His fist was clenched tightly against his thigh and he looked down at the visual display of his growing aggression. It pushed him to make a break out of here, to slink into the darkness of her quarters and sit near her. He would willingly knock the guards out to do it too.

The sharp edges of his nails bit into the softness of his palm and he stopped his racing thoughts. A faint line of blue ran along the edge of his index finger and over the back of his hand. He followed the line with his gaze, tracking it up along his forearm to where it disappeared under the sleeve of the medical tunic he wore. He looked up from his arm to the glass wall opposite him, through which before Teyla and the others had sat. That room was now empty and it was dark inside, changing the glass wall into a mirror, reflecting John's image back at him.

He frowned at the new dark areas around his cheeks and along his brow. He leant slightly forward, staring at the darkness of his eyes. He could just make out the slits of his pupils in the reflection.

She had been frightened of him. He regarded the version of himself looking back at him and knew why. It wasn't so much how he looked, but how he had been before. He could feel it in him, though it was greatly diluted from before, but that wild untamed sense was like last time. And he had enjoyed releasing it upon Kanaan.

He sat back and looked back down to his fist. He unclenched his hand, laying it on his thigh, seeing the changes across his skin. The areas were faint enough compared to his sharp precise memories of how he had been last time, and that was something. This was different to last time, very different, but the situation felt worse somehow.

He looked up to the ceiling again, up to the sky, though there were floors, walls, ceilings and a cloak between him and the stars. He drew in a breath and the knowledge arrived. Like a storm on the far horizon he knew something was on its way. A storm was preparing to break, and if this had been the prelude, then it worried him. Through his new calmness he felt the sense of importance to what was to come, but it also penetrated into the untamed parts of him and he felt his belly fire up at the threat.

Bring it on.

--------  
THE END


End file.
